Porsche Cayenne Electric Gets Wireless Charging In Uk – for £7k

The wireless charging pad for the Porsche Cayenne Electric – the first manufacturer-supported inductive EV charging solution on the market – has gone on sale in the UK.

Officially named the Porsche Wireless Charger (PWC), it offers speeds up to 11kW and works in temperatures ranging from -40 to 50deg C. Porsche claims it's unaffected by debris such as leaves or snow. The pad operates at around 90% efficiency.

The pad is straightforward to initiate. When driving towards it, the car's digital display cuts to gridlines overlaid on a feed from a forward-facing camera, to help the driver line up with the pad, drive over it and park in just the right place. 

The Cayenne’s air suspension then lowers the body a few centimetres, a magnetic field fires up beneath it and the invisible transfer of electrons into the battery begins.

You can’t embed the 60mm-tall, 50kg pad into the floor of a driveway or garage for total integration, as this would involve obscuring the sensors that help guide the car onto the pad. It is, however, completely self-sufficient, as no wallbox is required.

All UK-spec Cayenne EVs will be prepared as standard with the necessary wiring and hoses to accept the 15kg, water-cooled charge receptor that is bolted behind the protective underbody cladding at the front of the car. 

However, the unit itself, named the Wireless Charging Vehicle Pad, is an option costing £1930. The Wireless Charging Ground Pad – the pad you park above and which sends electricity into the car – costs £5355.

Wirelessly charging the Cayenne Electric therefore costs £7285.

If a quicker-charging system becomes available in the future, software alone won't be enough to realise that improved rate, Porsche said previously, so newer hardware would be required. 

Safety systems are integrated into the pad. For example, if the neighbours’ cat is drawn to the heat of the pad, its foreign object detection system will cut the magnetic charge field. When the cat moves, the charging will recommence. 

The system is also equipped with an LTE and wireless LAN module, so it can be controlled via the My Porsche app. Similar to a wallbox, charging can be started and stopped manually or set for activity at off-peak times, and preconditioning is possible.