How NFC Technology can Enhance Security and Convenience for Light Electric Vehicles

Light electric vehicles (LEVs) such as e-scooters, e-bikes, and three wheelers, are gaining popularity as a form of urban transportation. From a distance, they look similar to classic human-powered vehicles, but, in fact, LEVs are equipped with electric motor assistance and offer recognizable advantages such as low cost, low emissions, and easy parking in small area as the result of urbanization.

While LEVs incorporate many technologies to serve convenience and digital revolution tends to drive the LEV market to be more feature-rich including moving from mechanical key to digital key, many vehicle manufacturers still use classic mechanical keys to unlock due to customers’ familiarity with conventional motorbikes or scooters.

To enhance user convenience, NFC tags can come into play as secure key solution for LEVs in place of traditional keys.

Security, Easy, and Cost efficiency

As digital key solutions for LEVs, NFC technology not only enhances security but also offers numerous features which serve several advantages over mechanical keys. For example:

• Higher security

As the world relies more on digital security, the encryption technique has been tested and improved to be widely accepted. Most NFC tags have a higher level of encryption and authentication than most advanced mechanical keys.

• Smaller and easier to carry

NFC tags are smaller and lighter than mechanical keys, which are bulkier and could scratch the pocket. NFC tags for vehicles are usually encased in robust materials like PVC, which prevent corrosion or rust on metal. This makes NFC tags more durable in daily use. Moreover, vehicle makers can optionally provide mobile applications and allow their customers to conveniently unlock by tapping the vehicle with mobile device.

    Unlock and prepare LEVs with a single tap of the NFC tag on the NFC reader.

• Convenient to add and revoke

NFC tags can be added or revoked from the vehicle with less effort than mechanical keys. If the owners lose their tags, they can revoke them at the service center or by themselves. For the adding process, customers can buy an empty card from the vehicle manufacturer or a nearby service center and add the NFC tag to their vehicle without any mechanical work.

• Personalized for each user

NFC tags can store digital data more than 100 bytes, which allows personalization for each user. For example, in the case of LEVs used in a household, each NFC key could allow different riding preferences or limitations, such as limiting the maximum speed for children or teenagers in the family for safety reasons.

• Additional data exchange channel

As embedded devices become more common in various vehicles, LEVs are also emerging from the lower cost and higher performance of battery and electronics components. By adding an HF card reader to LEVs to replace mechanical keys, this enables customers or technicians to read out vehicle diagnostic results or update firmware using a generic NFC mobile device.

• Cost-effectiveness

The cost of mechanical keys varies depending on the quality of the material and the complexity of the manufacturing. Switching to NFC tags for securing the vehicle could be a better option because it does not only replace the mechanical key and increasing security level, but it also significantly improves various user experiences and reduces the cost of after-sale service by transferring some activity to be a self-service.

Upgrade Security Lock

To meet the demands of advanced security innovations, Silicon Craft Technology PLC is committed to developing innovative solutions. For LEVs, we provide HF card reader ICs (RE31/RE41) and NFC tag ICs (SIC43S1) which can be used in LEV applications, including the card reader device on vehicle dashboard, and NFC tags for unlocking the vehicle.

Explore Silicon Craft HF RFID readers and NFC tag ICs to find well-suited solutions for your applications and amplify your technology experience even further.