Skip to main content

German companies collaborate on electronic vehicle identification

German internet of things (IoT) provider Kathrein has agreed a global collaboration on electronic vehicle identification with Tönnjes EAST, a German licence plate manufacturer. Both companies have been working together on the development of new technologies using Kathrein’s expertise in RFID technology combined with Tönnjes EAST’s experience in the integration of transponders into vehicle licence plates or windscreens. Their joint portfolio includes Kathrein’s latest RFID reader, the RRU4500, which h
September 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
German internet of things (IoT) provider Kathrein has agreed a global collaboration on electronic vehicle identification with Tönnjes EAST, a German licence plate manufacturer.


Both companies have been working together on the development of new technologies using Kathrein’s expertise in RFID technology combined with Tönnjes EAST’s experience in the integration of transponders into vehicle licence plates or windscreens.

Their joint portfolio includes Kathrein’s latest RFID reader, the RRU4500, which has a read range of up to 20 metres and enables the reliable identification of vehicles in free-flow motorway traffic up to a maximum speed of 250 km/h.

Tönnjes uses RFID technology in two systems, the IDePLATE, a vehicle licence plate with an integrated RFID chip and the IDeSTIX, a windscreen sticker containing a data chip with an encrypted ID number.

In order to ensure the IT security of the transponder data, the two companies use UCODE DNA, the latest generation of high security transponders from NXP Semiconductors. The decryption takes place directly between the transponders and the Kathrein readers. These are a new kind of combined RFID reader-writer and IoT gateway, which means that the data can be loaded directly into a Cloud and used from there.

The partners offer a turn-key solution, which includes implementing the technology on motorways, in low emission zones and toll roads, as well as establishing and operating central database solutions for authorities and providers.

Related Content

  • China's RFID market value forecast to reach US$4.3 billion by 2025
    May 26, 2015
    According to a new report by IDTechEx, RFID in China 2015-2025, not only will the use of RFID in China become a US$4.3 billion market in 2025, but that figure will almost double if the value of tags and readers made in the country and exported elsewhere is included. Already in 2015 China had 85 per cent of the global manufacture capacity of RFID tags, with over 150 RFID companies operating in the country.
  • Florida's free flow tolling eases congestion, improves safety
    July 24, 2012
    A decade since Florida's Turnpike Enterprise first deployed electronic toll collection, the organisation's Director of Toll Operations Rick Nelson and Tom S. Knuckey of PBS&J look at progress. A decade on from the deployment of Florida's Turnpike Enterprise's state-wide SunPass pre-paid Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) programme, transponder sales have ballooned from 5,000 to more than 4,000,000. Over 70 per cent of the state's turnpike drivers participate in the system and transponder sales continue to gro
  • Advanced ITS truck screening aids border control
    March 14, 2012
    State-of-the-art ITS technologies are being deployed for tracking of commercial vehicles at the US-Mexico border in Arizona, reports Pete Goldin. The border between the US and Mexico may be the epitome of America's wild west, but this remote desert frontier is being tamed by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) with a state-of-the-art ITS system. A comprehensive port-of-entry (POE) screening system is being deployed at the Mariposa Port of Entry – one of the busiest land ports in the nation – at
  • Advanced ITS truck screening aids border control
    March 14, 2012
    State-of-the-art ITS technologies are being deployed for tracking of commercial vehicles at the US-Mexico border in Arizona, reports Pete Goldin. The border between the US and Mexico may be the epitome of America's wild west, but this remote desert frontier is being tamed by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) with a state-of-the-art ITS system. A comprehensive port-of-entry (POE) screening system is being deployed at the Mariposa Port of Entry – one of the busiest land ports in the nation – at