U.S. officials warned that solar-powered highway gear, such as chargers, weather stations, and cameras, should be checked for hidden devices in batteries and inverters.
The advisory follows growing concerns over Chinese tech in U.S. infrastructure. A four-page security note reviewed by Reuters said undocumented cellular radios were found in some foreign-made power inverters and battery management systems.
The unreported note did not specify the source of the products, though many inverters come from China. U.S. officials increasingly fear that such devices and battery systems could hide components enabling remote interference at Beijing’s direction.
Reuters reported in May that U.S. energy officials had already flagged rogue communication devices in some Chinese inverters and batteries, and later that month, Denmark’s Green Power group said unexplained parts were found in imported equipment for its energy grid.
The Federal Highway Administration’s Aug. 20 advisory warned that undocumented cellular radios had been found in inverters and batteries powering U.S. highway infrastructure—from traffic cameras and signs to EV chargers and warehouses—posing risks of data theft and mass outages. The Department of Transportation said the notice drew on public and unclassified reports to guide mitigation steps, while referring further questions to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which had initially passed inquiries back to the DOT.
The alert urged authorities to inventory inverters, scan for hidden radios, disable suspicious devices, and ensure proper network segmentation. Meanwhile, Washington has also targeted Chinese vehicles, warning they could harvest data through autonomous testing. In January, the Commerce Department issued rules that will bar most Chinese cars and trucks from the U.S. by late 2026.
In response to the concerning reports, the Chinese Embassy in D.C. said in a statement that it opposed “the distortion and smear of China’s achievements in the field of energy infrastructure.”
China is hiding radios in solar-powered highway infrastructure. The CCP is putting surveillance devices in every thing it builds. https://t.co/07voOT27Cf
— Michael Ron Bowling (@mrbcyber) September 10, 2025
