Porsche
- The 2026 Porsche Cayenne EV will be available with a wireless charging pad like a smartphone.
- Once the electric Cayenne is parked in the correct position over a plate on the ground, it can accept a charge from another plate underneath its body.
- The U.S.-spec, Porsche-supplied wireless charger has an 11-kW output, but pricing hasn’t yet been announced.
Porsche is bringing out an air-cooled product once again, but purists shouldn’t get too excited because the 911 hasn’t suddenly regressed 30 years. Instead, it’s Porsche’s new inductive charging system, announced today at the IAA Mobility show in Munich. If the prospect of connecting the charging cable to your forthcoming Cayenne EV, which is set to go on sale sometime next year, is an annoying one, then Porsche has a solution. The new wireless charging setup requires nothing more taxing than simply parking over an anonymous-looking black pad in your driveway or garage. This isn’t the first attempt at a wireless charger for EVs, as BMW had a brief pilot program back in 2019, but it never got off the ground.Charging an SUV Like a SmartphoneOf course, wireless charging is hardly new. We’re all used to it with smartphones and other electronic devices. The technology is relatively straightforward, with alternating current passing “over the air” via a magnetic field established between the current source and the device. Caleb Miller|Car and DriverSo it is with Porsche’s solution, which features a floor plate and a vehicle plate. It’s the floor part that’s air-cooled, whereas the plate mounted underneath the vehicle is liquid-cooled. As that suggests, integrating the plate isn’t the work of a moment. It’s integrated into the vehicle’s structure, and that’s one reason why Porsche won’t be retrofitting this technology to its existing EV lineup anytime soon. Altogether, the vehicle plate and associated wiring weigh 33 pounds, and it’s the pre-wiring element that must be specified as an option during the build phase at the factory in order to get this feature. Equipped with that wiring, a Cayenne EV that hasn’t had a charging plate fitted during the build process could have it added at your local Porsche dealer. For the United States market, the 11-kW pad weighs a hefty 110 pounds and supplies a single-phase 240-volt, 48-amp output, able to charge in temperatures from -40 to 122 degrees F. But is it safe, you may ask? Naturally, Porsche has tested the kit to all the relevant legislation, also remarking that you can drive directly over the pad in something like a Hummer and you won’t damage it. As for the element you can’t see—the magnetic field—it uses radar to detect your inquisitive cat or the like, temporarily ceasing the charge. There’s also a system that detects if a metal object has been left on the pad, such as a wrench, and again, this will then halt the charging process. Charging isn’t interrupted for rain, snow, or leaves, so you can leave the pad in your driveway all year round. One knock on wireless charging is that it’s less efficient, although Porsche claims “up to” 90-percent efficiency between the power grid and the Cayenne’s battery pack, which is in line with the charging losses when using a Level 2 plug. But wireless charging in extreme temperatures could certainly influence that figure.➡️ Skip the lot. Let Car and Driver help you find your next car.Shop New Cars Shop Used CarsHow Does It Work?As for the actual process of using the pad, Porsche has made it very easy. It’s best to see it like a Wi-Fi router in the home: once you’ve got the code and paired it once, then you don’t have to worry about it again. It’s fully integrated into the MyPorsche app, so all the info you’d expect can be called up on your smartphone. PorscheWe got to experience it in a very low-speed demonstration. From just under 25 feet away, the Cayenne automatically switches to Park Assist mode, following the lines on the screen keeps everything on track as you edge forward toward the ground pad, which measures roughly 46 inches long, 31 inches wide, and just over 2 inches tall. Once you’re about five feet away, two circles appear on the screen, and the object is to place one over the other. It’s so easy and means the car and pad are perfectly aligned every time. The Cayenne then drops automatically on its air suspension for the optimal air gap between the plates. Porsche USA hasn’t yet released pricing for the plate or pad, but based on the option price in Germany that an engineer quoted to us—the equivalent of $9500 for everything needed for wireless charging—it’ll be a relatively expensive convenience, but an obviously appealing one all the same.Related Stories
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Source: caranddriver.com
