Thales and Gireve simplify the Electric Vehicle charging experience and deliver trusted foundations for Smart Grid deployments

• Thales and Gireve partner to improve the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging experience with a secure, interoperable solution that creates a trusted, open infrastructure for car makers, charging point operators, e-Mobility Service Provider and drivers.
• The joint ‘Plug & Charge’ solution brings the security and convenience needed to serve this fast growing market - 84 million electric vehicles (EV) are expected on European roads by 2030.
• The platform automatically recognizes the Electric Vehicle, authenticates the driver’s subscription, and starts charging when plugged into an ISO-15118² compatible charging point – an ideal approach for smart grid management on a long term.

Gireve, the leading B2B digital platform for electric mobility, and Thales, leader in digital security, have collaborated to provide a simple and secure ´Plug & Charge´ access and billing system. The joint solution, based on the Thales Trusted Key Manager and Gireve’s intermediation platform, improves the driver experience, builds trust in a multi players’ ecosystem and also helps meet the ISO 15118 International standard.

While the EV market rapidly expands, convenient access to charging networks becomes a priority. The current charging network is still very fragmented, often proprietary and not available in enough places. A global standardized and interoperable solution is needed as well as an improved management of the delivery of electricity.

Today 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 harmonized ´Plug & Charge´ solution to simplify the experience and ensure the highest level of security for all EV market players.

Drivers simply 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 freely 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 unique 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. The result – a simpler and more secure EV charging experience.

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

(1) ISO 15118 is an international standard that outlines the digital communication protocol that an electric vehicle (EV) and charging station should use to recharge the EV’s high-voltage battery.