Porsche Introduces 11 kW Wireless Home Charger For EVs

When Porsche first showed off its wireless charging pad for EVs, it didn’t seem like a huge deal at first. But the more you think about it, the more it feels like one of those little ideas that could actually make everyday life a lot easier. You’d literally just park on top of a flat pad. That’s it. Porsche says it ought to make charging at home significantly easier.

So the real question is, how does this work? The pad is presented as a slim platform.

It’s just 2.3 inches high and roughly the size of a small mattress. You open it on your phone for the first time, type a password, and it will automatically recognize you for a feature that is part of a built-in Wi-Fi module. You come to your garage, you roll over the pad, and it simply starts charging. No cables, no fuss. It’ll plug into a regular power supply and turn AC to DC before transmitting some energy up into the car. It weighs about 33 pounds, quite simply toddler weight.

Porsche added a simple extra safety feature, however, where the system not only shuts off if something gets under it. It stops, whether a cat is walking by or a kid is poking around in there, but it goes back into operation as soon as everything is all right again. Charging comes through two copper coils. One is inside a pad and the other inside the car. The pad creates a magnetic field, the car picks it up, and the energy transfers wirelessly. 

Another cool feature is that this pad is quite forgiving. Because it operates at 85 kHz and around 2,000 volts in an oscillating circuit, it can be used to charge your car even if you don’t park perfectly centered. You only have to be off about four inches, and it will still tick through as normal. The entire thing maxes out at 11 kW, which happens to be the number one thing for many home chargers. It isn’t intended to be a fast charger, but slow charging is best for keeping the battery healthy over time anyway.

So no, it won’t refuel your EV in minutes. But for those of you who like the notion of returning home, parking where you typically do, and waking up to just a fully charged battery without plugging a thing, Porsche’s pad could be one of those “why didn’t this exist sooner” inventions.