DrainDead: Emptying Batteries of Parked Electric Vehicles

In recent years, sales of electric vehicles have skyrocketed. Fueled by rising gas prices and government incentives, many companies and private car owners have switched from internal combustion engine vehicles to battery electric vehicles. Although bidirectional charging promises to provide power to homes and grid stabilization in the future, it is only rarely used today. This paper discusses the possibilities of discharging batteries from electric vehicles on the road today and how attackers could use this approach to drain energy from targeted cars. We also present a prototype for performing such attacks. Furthermore, this paper includes test results obtained from discharging various electric vehicles from different manufacturers.