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Porsche Cayenne Wireless Charging | Image: Supplied / Porsche
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Our mobile phones are charged wirelessly, so why not our cars? Porsche has answered that conundrum with its new wireless charging one-box plate for its EVs. However, only the upcoming new Cayenne electric will be compatible with this feature, and you won’t be able to charge the currently available Macan or Taycan.
Porsche will be the first car manufacturer to bring an 11kW charging system with a one-box base plate for battery-electric vehicles. The most significant advantage of course, is the lack of pesky charging cables that you have to constantly untangle, or open the electric charging flap, as one-box means that apart from the floor plate mounted at the parking lot, there is no longer any need to install a wall box or control unit.
The upcoming 2026 Cayenne electric will be the first Porsche to be ordered with this vehicle-side equipment. The floor plate will be sold at Porsche Centres and online in the Porsche Shop. Let’s take a closer look!
“Ease of use, suitability for everyday use and charging infrastructure are still the decisive factors when it comes to the acceptance of electric mobility,” said Dr. Michael Steiner, Deputy Chairman and Member of the Executive Board, Research and Development, on the launch of the wireless charging system. “We are proud that inductive charging will soon be available in series production at Porsche. Charging an electric car at home has never been so easy and convenient.”
Porsche says charging power is capped at 11kW and that energy transfer efficiency from the power grid to the battery is up to 90 per cent. This could change the electric vehicle ecosystem, as 75 per cent of Porsche EV owners charge their cars at home.
While we’re sure the Porsche Cayenne owners’ garage isn’t small, it’s worth considering the space. The charging plate is not too heavy (at 50 kgs), but it’s not small, measuring length/width/height: 117 x 78 x 6 centimetres. It must be connected to the primary power source to be installed in your garage, carport, or open-air parking space. Some hardware is also required for the upcoming Cayenne electric. It has to be optioned with Porsche Wireless Charging pre-installation and the Porsche Wireless vehicle plate.
To initiate charging, the Cayenne electric must be parked above the floor plate, and the base plate has a motion detector and foreign object detection. It will automatically interrupt if a living creature gets between the vehicle and the floor plate or a metallic object lies on the latter and heats up, so you don’t have to worry about cats.
Importantly, the plate is protected from stone chips and the effects of the weather while the receiver unit is in the underbody of the vehicle between the front wheels. You can monitor the charging process via the My Porsche app, and a different view is added to the surround camera to help steer the Cayenne over the charging plate. There is also a timer charging with preconditioning.
For now, the Porsche wireless charging feature will be available in Europe, with more markets to follow, while a second owner of a Cayenne electric can also get this retrofitted. The process will not be cheap, though, with the charging floor plate and the plate within the car expected to cost upwards of AUD$10,000. At the Munich Motor Show, a prototype Cayenne electric replete with fluorescent paint, no less, was on display. It remains to be seen when this technology comes to Australia, but we would wager that it would be introduced soon after the launch of the new generation Cayenne electric.
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