Ficosa, a Spain-based automotive components provider, has given IDEMIA the “Best Supplier for Electronics 2016 Award”.

In a statement announcing its win, IDEMIA noted that it has been supplying Ficosa with M2M SIM cards since 2013, and asserted that “[t]oday, as vehicles are more and more connected, IDEMIA consolidates its position as a key partner in the automotive sector.” IDEMIA added that its products are currently “in use in a major OEM telematics program in North America.”

For Ficosa’s part, Electronics Corporate Commodity Manager & Purchasing Manager Francesc Ollé said the two companies “have been working closely together to always improve our collaboration and this award is a way for us to value the high performance of IDEMIA concerning the quality of the products and customer support provided.”

The companies partnership stems from Ficosa’s work over the years with Oberthur Technologies, which merged with Safran Identity & Security earlier this year to form what is now IDEMIA. In the months leading up to the merger, Oberthur Technologies had demonstrated a growing interest in automotive sector, and particularly the emerging smart cars market, with its virtual key solutions; and Safran Identity & Security, too, had demonstrated the smart car applications of its embedded SIM technology. Going forward, IDEMIA’s focus on the automotive sector is likely to intensify as sophisticated IT grows increasingly important in this area.