Electromobility - No more plugs: Tesla is working on a wireless charging station
It's the ideal solution: open the garage, plug in the car and you're done. And on the next journey, the electric car is fully charged again. No cables, nothing. What is particularly widespread in the smartphone world is set to become commonplace for electric vehicles in the future: inductive charging.
In an interview with US TV presenter Jay Leno, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen revealed that the company is working on a wireless charging station. He spoke of a kind of pad on the garage floor over which you simply place the car and the charging process then starts automatically.
Tesla bought German company
A report in the IT trade magazine "Golem" in June already suggested that preparations were underway. At that time, it became public that Tesla had taken over the German start-up Wiferion - a corresponding entry in the commercial register confirmed this, as the company changed its entry there and then officially traded as Tesla Engineering Germany GmbH.
Wiferion is researching just such a charging station: the etaLink 1000 system already delivers up to 1 kilowatt of power without a plug and is IP65 certified, i.e. dustproof and protected against water jets.
Where are the robot arms?
The question is whether this means Tesla is turning its back on robotic arms, which the company presented in sensational videos back in 2015, or whether it merely wants to expand the options for charging a Tesla with wireless stations. The fact is: both exist at most as prototypes, and apart from a wallbox, no other charging option has yet made it into the garages of vehicle owners.
Incidentally, such a wireless station is not a replacement for the charging points along the world's roads - similar to the socket at home, the technology currently supplies too little power to keep the length of charging breaks on the road within reasonable limits. For garages, parking spaces or underground garages, however, the pads would be a good way to conveniently supply the car with some power and not have to worry about it.
Source: Jay Leno's Garage, Golem
Read also:
- Tesla's chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, mentioned during an interview with Jay Leno that the company is developing a wireless charging station, wherein the vehicle simply parks over a pad for automatic charging.
- Wiferion, a German start-up that Tesla had acquired, is working on an inductive charging station called etaLink 1000, which delivers up to 1 kilowatt of power without the need for cables and is certified for dust and water resistance.
- The etaLink 1000 charging station from Wiferion would be useful for garages, parking spaces, or underground garages, as it can conveniently supply the electric car with power without the need for cables.
- Inductive charging, currently widespread in the smartphone world, is set to become the norm for electric vehicles in the future, as Tesla, among others, is pursuing wireless charging solutions like those under development by Wiferion.
Source: www.stern.de
