Thursday 4th September

Porsche Wireless Charging to debut on new Cayenne

Wireless car charging finally arrives and, no, it won't fry your cat

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Wireless charging technology has been around for some time now. Pretty much every new car today has some form of inductive charging for your phone, keeping its battery topped up while somehow frying it at the same time, and if it doesn’t then the aftermarket has got you covered. But what about charging the car’s battery wirelessly? It’s something many firms have tried but nobody’s been able to put anything into production. Porsche, however, is gunning to be the first, by announcing the rollout of a wireless charging feature for the new Cayenne.

To be revealed at the IAA motor show in Munich, the Porsche Wireless Charging (always one to take the literal approach to nomenclature) system will be offered as an optional extra for the upcoming Cayenne Electric, taking away the faff of plugging a charging cable in when you park up at home. The system consists of two parts, the first being a ‘vehicle pad’ receiver, which is a relatively compact unit that sits between the front axle, and a ‘ground pad’ transmitter that you can plug in to the mains at home. Porsche engineers joked that, because the former uses a fan to regulate heat and the latter a liquid system, it’s the first time its offered a product that’s both air and water cooled (geddit?).

Naturally, it’s nowhere near as rapid as hooking it up to a fast charger, but its max rate of 11kW is pretty decent by home charging standards. It does require a fair bit of precision to line the transmitter up with the receiver. Thankfully, there’s a dedicated graphic that pops up on the Cayenne’s infotainment screen with two green guiding lines layered over a direct feed from the front camera. Then, as you approach the charging pad, the camera switches to a top-down graphic where you have to line up a green ring (your car) with a green circle (the charging pad). 

Having tested the system ahead of its debut, it feels a bit like a retro video game, with the circle snapping to the ring when a connection is made. The pad is a tad sensitive to the position of the car and it’s easy to overshoot and disconnect from the transmitter, though it’ll no doubt become second nature after a few attempts. Porsche’s also beefed up the transmitter so if you do end up mucking up your approach and running it over, it won’t fall apart under the (likely immense) weight of your electric Cayenne.

One of the major barriers for the commercialisation of wireless chargers is, weirdly, pet cats. The problem being that cats typically like to a) sleep under cars and b) sleep on warm surfaces, which has wireless charging pad written all over it. But fear not, cat lovers, because Porsche’s charging system can detect the presence of a pet and immediately switch the pad off. Once your pet’s moved, it’ll then wait 15 seconds before charging just in case they hop back on the pad. You’ll also get a notification through the My Porsche app if your cat/small dog decides to take a nap on the charger so you don’t jump in for your morning commute with zero battery remaining.

This isn’t a matter of science fiction, either. Sales for the Porsche Wireless Charging system will commence in Europe next year, with ‘other markets’ following soon after. It’ll only be available on the new Cayenne to begin with, and although you’ll be able to retrofit it at your local Porsche dealer later on, you can’t do the same with the current Taycan and electric Macan. We’ll have to wait a little longer for official pricing, but if you’re fed up with plugging your car in at the end of a long day, this may well be an option worth ticking when speccing up that Cayenne…

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• New Cayenne EV takes Shelsley Walsh SUV record
• Porsche confirms all-electric new Cayenne

[Type R Tom]

The efficiencies of this vs wired will be interesting. I wonder how much more it will cost to charge it up? Although I can imagine the target audience probably isn't too worried about it.

[Dale487]

The engineer's little joke is wrong, the 959 had air cooled cylinders and water cooler heads.

[otolith]

Type R Tom said:

The efficiencies of this vs wired will be interesting. I wonder how much more it will cost to charge it up? Although I can imagine the target audience probably isn't too worried about it.

They're talking about 90% efficiency. Would take the normal losses of 10% - 15% to 19% - 23.5%, assuming that they compound. Would add a little over half an hour to a five hour charge - or reduce the number of miles added during your scheduled cheap rate electricity slot by 10%.

Won't charge at the claimed maximum 11kW on a typical UK single phase connection.

[dbs2000]

Solution looking for a problem.

[bigyoungdave]

I'm surprised it doesn't have some sort of auto park function so that the car automatically lines itself up with the pad, at least for the last couple of metres. In a home garage it could be quite nice, not having to mess around with cables

[Crudeoink]

bigyoungdave said:

I'm surprised it doesn't have some sort of auto park function so that the car automatically lines itself up with the pad, at least for the last couple of metres. In a home garage it could be quite nice, not having to mess around with cables

Autopark would make this much easier. Will it work in a darker and more dingy garage? Or will you just end up spending as much time carefully lining the car up as it takes to plug the cable in when you get home? I assume this is aimed at those who already park inside so the idea of getting wet if its raining while you plug the car in is moot

[Frimley111R]

dbs2000 said:

Solution looking for a problem.

Yep, there's a lot of that in the EV world. The pad seems good but the groundwork you need to put one in makes it much more pricey than a simple charger and most people are ok plugging a car in. It might be ok in some niche/premium locations but it is not a general solution, a bit like these roads that can effectively do the same.

[Quhet]

Cool in a sort of bond villain's lair sort of way. Can't see this being at all practical in the real world though

[Motormouth88]

So it’s not wireless

[Gary29]

This will bring another level of rage when someone parks in 'your' spot on the road outside your house

[Frimley111R]

Gary29 said:

This will bring another level of rage when someone parks in 'your' spot on the road outside your house

I don't think any council will allow you to dig the road up and put one of these in. it's more for wealthy individuals and their driveways or garages.

[Alorotom]

This is the style of approach that should have been the standard from the outset with EVs

Depending on implementation and installation costs (plus can it be retrofitted to ANY EV) this could solve a whole lot of charging location problems for the general public

[DonkeyApple]

Quhet said:

Cool in a sort of bond villain's lair sort of way. Can't see this being at all practical in the real world though

It is a cool step forward but who wastes a garage space on a van rental? The point of something like a Cayenne is that you dump it outside so as all garage space can be used for less practical wagons.

[kambites]

Alorotom said:

This is the style of approach that should have been the standard from the outset with EVs

Depending on implementation and installation costs (plus can it be retrofitted to ANY EV) this could solve a whole lot of charging location problems for the general public

What problems do you think it can solve? I'm not really seeing any significant benefits compared to plugging the car in.

As far as I can see it's just a way to spend quite a lot of money to avoid having to spend 10 seconds plugging in a cable every now and then. Don't get me wrong, if someone offered to install such a system in my garage for free I wouldn't say no, but I certainly wouldn't pay for it.

[otolith]

Alorotom said:

This is the style of approach that should have been the standard from the outset with EVs

Depending on implementation and installation costs (plus can it be retrofitted to ANY EV) this could solve a whole lot of charging location problems for the general public

It would be of limited use for public charging, it's only a domestic charge speed.

[Baldchap]

Type R Tom said:

The efficiencies of this vs wired will be interesting. I wonder how much more it will cost to charge it up? Although I can imagine the target audience probably isn't too worried about it.

Certainly mobile wireless charging is pretty inefficient, compared to wired. I can't imagine this is anything new.

[JonnyVTEC]

otolith said:

They're talking about 90% efficiency. Would take the normal losses of 10% - 15% to 19% - 23.5%, assuming that they compound. Would add a little over half an hour to a five hour charge - or reduce the number of miles added during your scheduled cheap rate electricity slot by 10%.

Won't charge at the claimed maximum 11kW on a typical UK single phase connection.

11kW? 32A single phase would offer 7kW

[otolith]

JonnyVTEC said:

otolith said:

They're talking about 90% efficiency. Would take the normal losses of 10% - 15% to 19% - 23.5%, assuming that they compound. Would add a little over half an hour to a five hour charge - or reduce the number of miles added during your scheduled cheap rate electricity slot by 10%.

Won't charge at the claimed maximum 11kW on a typical UK single phase connection.

11kW? 32A single phase would offer 7kW

Yes, my point exactly. Though of course Porsche is a German company selling to a global audience, other places may be better served.

[AyBee]

Article said:

taking away the faff of plugging a charging cable in when you park up at home.

I wonder how many Cayennes do their whole range in a day, I imagine most are plugged in once or twice a week and it's hardly difficult to plug it in. Looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

[fantheman80]

if its anything like my phone wireless pad, I would thinks its locked on and charging cos I swear I saw the lightening symbol only to come down in the morning and find its flat as feck...or my missus has swapped the plug for her hair straighteners