Tesla looks like it is on the brink of introducing wireless inductive charging, and it looks like the Cybertruck is poised to be the first Tesla vehicle capable of this technology with connectors for inductive charging already built in.
Last year Tesla teased a new wireless inductive charging system on a slide during the Investor Day presentation. The image showed a Model S Plaid parked in a garage with a large Wall Connector type device, connected to a charging mat underneath the car.
This hint was followed up by Tesla acquiring Wiferion, a company that specializes in wireless charging technology, just a few months later. The purchase turned out to actually be an acqui-hiring, as Tesla sold Wiferion just three months later, but retained all of the company’s engineers.
If that wasn’t enough of an indication that Tesla was actively developing wireless inductive charging, we finally got confirmation from Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, who said during an interview with Jay Leno, “Oh, we’re working on inductive charging. So you don’t even need to plug something in at that point. You just pull up in your garage, drive over the pad, and you’re charging.”
That interview was primarily about the Cybertruck, and it looks like the Cybertruck will be the first Tesla vehicle to be capable of wireless charging.
Cybertruck owner @dblcapcrimpin was tearing apart his Cybertruck to take a closer look at the casting, when he discovered some unusual connectors. According to the Cybertruck Service Manual, these are “inductive charger headers.”
This was also confirmed by Cybertruck Lead Engineer, Wes Morrill.
With these connectors Tesla could easily add a wireless charging pad on the underside of the Cybertruck. Paired with a charging mat on the ground, owners could simply drive into their garage over top of the mat, and their Cybertruck would begin charging without having to plug in.
Part of the reason wireless charging has not already become mainstream is the efficiency of current systems, which lag behind their wired counterparts. However, advancements in technology in recent years have closed the gap, and from what we have been told from our sources, we should expect impressive charging speeds that exceed that of a Mobile Connector and rival those provided by the Wall Connector, with equally impressive efficiency.
