Earlier this year, Tesla held its Investors Day which included a sneak peek into what Tesla was working on to make charging easier for EV drivers.
The presentation on that day included a hint at a potential wireless charging solution for homes and workplaces from Rebecca Tinucci, the head of Global Charging Infrastructure.
In a new interview with Jay Leno that explores the engineering behind the recently launched Cybertruck, Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, has confirmed that Tesla is working on a wireless home charging solution.
“We are working on inductive charging. You don’t even need to plug anything in at that point. You just drive over the pad in your garage and you start charging,” he said.
BREAKING: Tesla directly confirms they are working on a wireless (inductive) charging pad for your garage where you just park over it and it automatically starts charging your vehicle. https://t.co/OK2ZRmAtVx pic.twitter.com/dfPq0H3egr
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 18, 2023
Although no further details were shared, it appears that this solution refers to driving an EV over a Tesla wireless charging pad, similar to how wireless charging works for phones.
Tesla has been known to explore wireless charging technologies before. One hint was provided when reports surfaced in August that the EV giant had purchased a robotics wireless charging firm from Germany called Wiferion.
At that time, the purchase was confirmed by Wiferion’s website footer that stated “Tesla Engineering Germany GmbH 2023”, confirming Tesla as the parent company.
Currently, Tesla and EV owners either charge using a mobile charging unit which Tesla calls a universal mobile charger (UMC) or a higher-powered dedicated charger. The dedicated Tesla charger is known as the universal wall connector which can also be integrated into the Tesla app.
Both of these are not the only options on the market but are popular choice when it comes to home charging for Tesla and non-Tesla owners.
This would be a pretty good evolution in EV charging at homes if Tesla can deliver a wireless product that seamlessly charges the vehicle when the car is above a charging pad in the garage without requiring any cables to be plugged into the vehicle.
We look forward to more information on this technology and its practical implementation for hundreds of thousands of current and future EV owners who want a seamless way to charge their vehicles.
The Full Jay Leno interview can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGDOKD7ZZqI
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.