Porsche Wireless Charging – sci-fi tech made real for the next Cayenne
The new inductive charging system will be available initially for the new all-electric Porsche Cayenne, due for reveal later this year
Some motoring technologies and concepts from the world of sci-fi refuse to die – flying cars, autonomous cars, wireless charging for EVs. While soaring above the traffic or being able to nod off on the way to the shops are still flights of fancy, Porsche has made serious inroads into the whole zero-effort, zero-plug charging idea, to the extent that it’ll be offering a wireless car charging system as an optional extra to buyers of the new electric Cayenne when it goes on sale next year.
We were all a little sceptical as Porsche’s people led us away from one studio (the contents of which are yet to be revealed) to a smaller one just outside Stuttgart. This second studio contained a strange, glowing electric Cayenne prototype at one end and a little pad on the floor at the other. This was Porsche’s new wireless charging system, not just being explained to us by enthused engineers, but there for us to try.
The concept is very simple. You drive your electric Cayenne into your garage and park over the wireless charging floor plate (which is 1.17 metres in length, 78cm wide, 6cm tall and weighs 50kg). Then you simply get out, go into the house and get on with your evening. The next morning, your car should be charged and ready to drive away, with no effort in terms of plugging and unplugging required. Over the course of a typical week of commuting, owners could very well find themselves not actually thinking about charging at all. Sounds ideal, though there are a few extra steps.
Not least: getting the car in the right place. Guide lines appear when you open the Porsche Surround View parking assistant, helping you to position the car effectively so it will charge of its own accord. We had a couple of goes at this and, while there is a tolerance, of 20cm to the left and right, it’s not infallible. Once positioned correctly, the car then drops on its air suspension to get the hardware installed in its underside down to a 16cm air gap between it and the pad for charging to begin.
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All being well, your Cayenne E4’s central display will now show that a steady 11kW stream of electricity is passing wirelessly into its battery, and you can monitor this via the My Porsche app too. You’ll also be able to program pre-conditioning and a timer. From the power grid to the car, energy is transferred at an efficiency of 90 per cent; much better than, say, charging your car via a lead from a generic three-pin plug at home.
11kW doesn’t sound like a huge amount in a world where Mercedes is talking about 850kW charging capability, but remember, this is a solution geared towards slowly filling your car over a long period. Even so, say you’re home for lunch and the car’s in the garage for an hour, that’s a 20-mile top-up at minimum. It’s certainly quick enough for a near fill-up from dead over a 12-hour period, if uninterrupted. Now let's answer some potential Porsche Wireless Charging FAQs:
How does it work?
It works much the same way as it does on your smartphone, albeit without the need to be so close to the charger as a phone often is. The base plate has a copper and ferrite transmitter coil through which alternating current flows to create a magnetic field. It’s through this that the energy flows into the secondary coil installed in the car, in a receiver unit between the front wheels, where a rectifier turns the alternating current into direct current – the kind that can flow into a battery. Ultra-wideband tech in the plate detects the car’s relative position over the plate.
Will it work on a Macan or Taycan?
At the moment, the Macan is on the PPE platform and while the Cayenne’s isn’t an entirely alien set-up, it’s been designed from the start to accept the necessary hardware and the Macan wasn't, so a retrofit won't be the work of a moment. Look out for the facelift. . The same can be said for the Taycan on its J1 platform. If you buy a Cayenne E4 without the tech and later want it fitted, it’s likely this will be possible with a visit to your local Porsche centre. If the tech turns out to be a runaway success, we’re sure Porsche will do everything possible to make its other models compatible.
Will it kill your cat?
'No, it won’t' the engineers told us with a half smirk. They must have known this question was coming... The base plate has a motion detector and foreign object detection. So if your wandering moggy sneaks into the garage and is either asleep on the plate before the car lowers (you should notice it anyway through the cameras) or sneaks under the car while it’s charging, the charge will stop. You should then get a notification via your app to say the charging has been interrupted. Charging won’t begin, or will be interrupted, if metallic objects that could heat up during the process are detected too.
Will it work outside and will it break if you drive over it?
Yes, the wireless charger is described as suitable for outdoor use, with its live components protected from rain and snow, and yes, it’s sturdy enough to not break should you drive over it.
How much will it cost and when can you get it?
Exact prices aren’t available as yet, but indicative pricing is around €5k for the pad and €2k for your Cayenne to be fitted with the necessary hardware for inductive charging. The Cayenne E4 itself is expected to be revealed before the end of the year and on sale at the earliest Q2 2026 and at the latest Q3, with this tech on the options list from the word go.
