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Porsche's New Cayenne Will Charge Itself Like No Other EV:
Those who closely follow electric cars will have heard whispers of wireless charging for a while now. And if you're not an EV aficionado, you've probably wondered why it hasn't happened. Well, that's all about to change. Porsche announced on Thursday that it's rolling out wireless charging on the upcoming all-electric Cayenne later this year.
The goal is to put an end to wrangling thick and bulky charging cables. Instead, Porsche is stepping in as the first electric car maker to offer wireless charging that's actually going into production.
Porsche's inductive charging system delivers up to 11kW with around 90% efficiency, which is on par with traditional wired AC charging. But unlike most EV solutions that involve a jungle of wall-mounted boxes, Porsche's setup requires just one unassuming floor plate in your garage or driveway. Given that Porsche says roughly 75% of electric charging happens at home, it's not hard to see the appeal.
This one-box system does away with the wall box and bulky control units, making the process look effortless. Just park your Cayenne Electric over the slab, and you're good to go. The car even lowers itself slightly to align with the plate -- which makes charging as efficient as possible.
Many startups have tried and failed to make wireless charging for EVs happen over the years, said Antuan Goodwin, CNET's senior cars writer. "Challenges that have kept the tech from widespread adoption include: fragile hardware (it will be run over by drivers), alignment issues, energy losses that make it significantly slower than plugging in or excessive/dangerous heat generation from sending high amperage over air."
Porsche thinks it's managed to overcome these roadblocks. The system works via a transmitter coil embedded in the base plate and a corresponding receiver in the vehicle's underbody, sandwiched between the front wheels. It transfers energy using a magnetic field over a gap of a few centimeters, and it has all the safety features you'd expect: motion sensors, object detection and a big red pause button.
The Cayenne Electric, which will be the first to offer this tech, is due for its release later this year. As for the floor plate, it will go on sale in 2026 through Porsche Centres and online. Pricing hasn't been detailed yet, but expect it to land at the premium end.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday September 07, @10:48PM (1 child)
"Presumably you’d use the wired charging port for that. Honestly, you thought that was something nobody thought of? Seriously??"
After the design and manufacturing lunacy I have witnessed over the last twenty years, I have become so jaded that nothing like that would surprise me.
I am just an old engineer. I used to design and build these things. I took my work very seriously, as if I were the customer. And I hate lousy design.
Well, I really can't do much about it if the financiers buy into sales pitches, hire "managers", and make engineers subordinate. Our goal becomes repurposed from making the world's best ( whatever we made ) to becoming the leader in investment return.
Sales ingenuity and legal craftsmanship are used to monetize reputations that had taken decades to build. They count on "too big to fail" to insure continued business, even though those employees who built the corporate reputation no longer work there, nor did they teach their replacements. The business still has the same name, which at one time had a reputation for solid quality, but now only a paper tiger.
So, all I know to do, knowing my own time grows near, is to surround myself with things made right with high design quality and craftsmanship. Others may consider what I treasure to be "mutts"; I will take a mutt any day over some useless show dog whose only value is whatever marketing skills can goad the price to. Its obvious that my skills and ethics are dated. It seems we celebrate ignorance and helplessness, as if "the government will simply pass a law" to provide for our needs, where I had believed the laws of physics would do that.
Everything existing along the time vector ( x, y, z, t) seems to have a "time constant", "time-to-live". For human empires, it's around 250 years. Does July 4, 1776 ring a bell? 2026 is next year.
Its been one helluva party. Everybody's drunk and in debt to those who print up debt notes, and the debt will never be repaid though theoretically it still accrues usury.
I guess at this point, nothing to do but wait it out. Not much sense trying to do anything as one is sure to step on someone else's claim, resulting in legal penalties which must be paid with yet more debt.
The future is not in building, rather it is in law-making and law-enforcement. And I have chosen the wrong skill to pursue. But for me, personally, these skills will serve me well.
The whole thing is to avoid interacting with men of the handshake, pen, and tie, whose skills are focused on psychology and compelling others to servitude, instead interacting with men of the construction tools, directing natural law of physics to provide for creature comforts.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday September 07, @10:57PM
OMG. I cross-circuited after reading "what the hell is going on right now" topic.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]