Wireless Charging

16

Description

If driving into a parking spot with a wireless connection to a Tesla port charger, car can connect wirelessly to charge quickly.

Competitive/Pricing/Notes

May cost more in system upgrades but probably won’t be much.

Status

Moderator: Tesla has already stated that wireless charging will not be available primarily due to the high amount of power loss that wireless charging at the level needed to charge the car.

Bosch now sells a Plugless charging system for the Leaf and Volt for $3,000.  It’s not stated how much power it provides, but a full Leaf charge takes 8 hours. It can be inferred that it is quite a bit lower power than the Tesla home chargers, as these cars have small batteries.  A wireless supercharger would be cool, but the losses could be significant, and the costs to each vehicle could add several thousand dollars to the retail price.


Category: Tags: entered 7-Nov-2014
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Tesla Taj
-32

8 Comments

If this is a suggestion for inductive charge coupling, forget it. Too much power loss. Much better is the robotic snake which Tesla is now developing for hooking up automatically.
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FelixMendeldog
0
This is something I would pay for to have installed in my garage depending on the price.  I have "Free" electricity (TXU) from 10pm to 6am so the charging inefficiency is irrelevant.
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Greg
5
Charging efficiency is always important.  One of the main reasons we buy Teslas is to reduce our energy usage.  Wasting it on inefficient charging would be a huge step backwards.

I've always thought it would be simpler to just have a couple of contacts on the front bumper that would connect to a charger mounted in the wall in front of the car; just drive slowly until it touches and start charging.  Lots of details to be worked out but it sounds a lot easier than a robotic "snake".
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BillArnett
52
Charging efficiency is always important.  One of the main reasons we buy Teslas is to reduce our energy usage.  Wasting it on inefficient charging would be a huge step backwards.

I've always thought it would be simpler to just have a couple of contacts on the front bumper that would connect to a charger mounted in the wall in front of the car; just drive slowly until it touches and start charging.  Lots of details to be worked out but it sounds a lot easier than a robotic "snake".
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BillArnett
52
I prefer the snake. Especially for unplugging it could be fairly simple to implement and that would reduce the amount of "plugging" by half. It wouldn't even need to be actuated by servos if it only unplugs. Just strong springs and some vibrator module (if you pull before the latch is opened it will lock the latch and you won't be able to remove the power plug)...
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Erik de Bruijn
271
With apologies to Heinlein, TANSTAFE.
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ElectricBlue
0
I disagree, Wireless charging using Resonant Magnetic Coupling is very efficient. My company developed a 120kW charger with an efficiency of 94.6%. For home use 10-15kW corresponds to a 48 to 72 A EVSE.

For this to gain widespread adoption, interoperability is required between charging stations and car modules. The J2954 standard is being finalized.

We've started analysis work on V2G (two-way wireless power transfer).
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EricZ
230
@Greg:

You may have free power, but power isn't free.  Tesla's goal is to save the environment, and if you waste power, even at night, your still wasting power.
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Jean-Claude D
151