French B2B e-mobility digital platform Gireve and Thales, the French defence and security group, are collaborating to provide secure ‘Plug & Charge’ access and billing system. The joint solution, based on the Thales Trusted Key Manager and Gireve’s intermediation platform, is designed to improve the driver experience, build trust in a multi players’ ecosystem and helps meet the ISO 15118 International standard.

The new solution is designed to address a market where the current charging network is still very fragmented, often proprietary and not available in enough places. Typically, each e-Mobility Service Provider (eMSP) offers EV drivers an RFID card to access and start a charging session. Gireve and Thales have partnered to create a harmonised ´Plug & Charge´ solution to simplify the experience and ensure a high level of security for all EV market players.

Drivers plug their electric car into any ISO 15118-compatible charging station, without using a physical card, and the billing is automatically associated to the subscription managed for them. As a result drivers can then choose an e-Mobility Service Provider and access a wider number of charging stations; while benefitting from a secure automated charging and digital payment experience.

The solution delivers credential certificates to each actor in the system from driver to vehicle and charging station. The system, based on Thales Trusted Key Manager then ensures the secure and instant mutual authentication between these actors. The solution also verifies that the right credentials are securely generated and distributed from the right e-Mobility Provider to the associated vehicle and user.

According to Thales and Gireve, this mutual authentication and secure credentials management also set the basis of a trusted environment for coming smart grid deployments. As the EV market is expected to boom in the coming years, so does electricity need. Indeed, such increasing needs will require improved and safe energy management and delivery to address power peaks demand.

“For almost 10 years, Gireve has been a central trusted third party for B2B players in the charging sector. Together with Thales, we are confident our solution addresses key challenges to back up the sustainable success of the EV ecosystem. Our joint efforts are all about facilitating energy access, bringing trust through cybersecurity and boosting drivers’ adoption with improved usage.” Eric Plaquet, CEO at Gireve

“Gireve offered Thales a great opportunity to deploy its field-proven expertise in strong authentication and cybersecurity to the smart charging market. Our partnership supports the sustainable e-mobility sector, by smoothing EV charging access and by creating the trust the sector needs to succeed. Looking forward, our collaboration may unleash further use cases to support smart grid development with more efficient energy management.” Christine Caviglioli, Vice President Automotive at Thales