Electromobility
No more plugs: Tesla is working on a wireless charging station
So far, Tesla’s inductive charging station only exists as an image.
© Tesla / PR
Providing electricity to electric cars is not a big challenge – but as with smartphones, wireless charging is still a bit more convenient. Tesla says it is working on exactly that.
It’s the ideal solution: open the garage, put the car in and you’re done. And that’s on the next trip Electric car full again. No cable, nothing. What is particularly widespread in the smartphone world will also become commonplace in electric vehicles in the future: inductive charging.
In an interview with US television presenter Jay Leno, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen revealed that the company is working on a wireless charging station. He talked about a kind of pad on the garage floor over which you simply park the car and the charging process then starts automatically.
Tesla bought German company
A report in the IT trade magazine “Golem” suggested in June that appropriate preparations were underway. At that time it became public that Tesla had taken over the German start-up Wiferion – a corresponding entry in the commercial register confirmed this, because the company changed its entry there and then officially traded as Tesla Engineering Germany GmbH.
Wiferion is researching exactly such a charging station: The etaLink 1000 system already delivers up to 1 kilowatt of power without a plug and is IP65 certified, i.e. dust-tight and protected against water jets.
Where are the robot arms?
It is questionable whether this means that Tesla is moving away from the robot arms, which the company had already presented in 2015 with sensational videos, or whether they simply want to expand the options for charging a Tesla with wireless stations. The fact is: Both only exist as prototypes; apart from a wallbox, no other charging option has yet made it into vehicle owners’ garages.
15 images
By the way, such a wireless station is not a replacement for the charging stations along the world’s roads – similar to the socket at home, the technology currently supplies too little power to keep the length of charging breaks on the road within a reasonable range. However, for garages, parking spaces or underground car parks, the pads would be a good way to conveniently supply the car with a little power and not have to worry about it.
source: Jay Leno’s Garage, Golem