BMW Has Confirmed Wireless Car Charging Production For July

There's something slightly annoying about plugging an electric car in, so we're mighty glad to see the first commercially-available wireless charging system for cars
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BMW is set to be the first major car manufacturer to bring a wireless car-charging system to market. Scheduled for a July production start, the game-changing tech will be available to order in the US, UK, China, Japan and, of course, Germany.

The first model that can use it is the 2018 model-year 530e iPerformance plug-in hybrid. The idea is that you place the pad on the ground, in this case at home where you normally park overnight. The pad is hooked up to mains electricity so that when you drive your car over it and park, it begins the recharging process. Ideal.

BMW Has Confirmed Wireless Car Charging Production For July

This inductive charging process is the same as the one that you can use in a number of current-generation cars to charge your smartphone. The same one that you might already use yourself on your desk. A primary coil in the waterproof pad transfers electricity via magnetic field to the secondary coil in the nose of the 530e iPerformance. BMW says the efficiency rate is a decent 85 per cent.

An extra helping hand comes when you’re trying to align the car over the pad. The car and pad communicate and automatically switch the car’s main display screen to show a 360-degree all-around view and alignment lines to work from. Several inches’ worth of misalignment is fine, so there’s no pressure to be too precise.

BMW Has Confirmed Wireless Car Charging Production For July

Charging automatically shuts off when the battery is full, at which point you can simply get back in and go on your way. Now this is how it should be done, and it’s coming within months.

Mercedes-Benz has also announced a wireless charging system but it will come later. We really hope the two brands – and all those who follow – will use a standardised system.

Comments

Anonymous

Cool phon- i mean BMW

05/29/2018 - 14:29 |
57 | 0
CannedRex24

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Cool headphone Jac- I mean Exhaust

05/29/2018 - 15:23 |
22 | 1

I dunno, just ask the Ford Pinto

05/29/2018 - 15:35 |
25 | 0

I think the Note 7 jokes need to die, it’s old

05/29/2018 - 18:49 |
2 | 10

Lmao username checks out 😂

06/01/2018 - 16:19 |
0 | 0
Tomislav Celić

Why tho? Why is plugging in your car so hard?

On one hand, every single cable that exists dies after a year or two. So it makes sense

On other hand wireless technology dies too

05/29/2018 - 14:47 |
12 | 0

Longetivity of The connector, no risk of forgetting to plug the car in overnight

05/29/2018 - 16:11 |
2 | 0

Convenience is king, buddy. And trust me, there’s something about an EV lead. You pull up at home and all you want to do is go inside to see the people you love and maybe crack open a beer, but instead you have to open the boot, get the lead’s box or pouch out, extract the lead, uncoil it from around itself, plug one end in, plug the other end in and finally get going into the house. Admittedly the wall-mounted chargers with integrated leads are better, but it’s still annoying.

As an example, right now I’m typing on my fancy desktop PC. I have two empty USB ports within a literal arm’s length and another couple on the back of the tower. I could leave a charging cable plugged in, but that’s not very neat for my desk. I could get a lead out when needed and plug it all in on demand. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s still a faff compared to the solution I actually went for, which was to buy a dedicated wireless charging stand that I can plonk the phone down onto and forget about. It’s brilliant.

I’d go as far as to say that if I were buying an EV in the future, whether or not it had wireless charging could be a deal-breaker for me. Especially if they can raise the efficiency from the 85 per cent level to more like 95.

05/29/2018 - 17:28 |
20 | 0
Anonymous

When cars brands start to be inspired by phone brand you know you’re in serious trouble.

05/29/2018 - 15:07 |
2 | 0
Griffin Mackenzie

I could imagine these getting stolen quite a lot

05/29/2018 - 15:07 |
2 | 0

Can’t imagine how expensive a replacement is

05/30/2018 - 01:51 |
0 | 0
CannedRex24

Hang on, most flagship phones don’t even have it yet

Why is BMW implementating it so damn early

05/29/2018 - 15:23 |
0 | 0
57)679&)8

Meanwhile
My
2015 car has it good job

05/29/2018 - 15:41 |
2 | 1

your camry can charge its battery wirelessly, has a 360 degree camera and can drive fully electric? damn toyota is fast

05/29/2018 - 17:09 |
0 | 0
pissoffftwat

I remember when formula E began they had this as a concept to make the cars last the whole race

05/29/2018 - 15:45 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

This is a great idea for hybrids. The heat generated by wireless charging can be used to keep the engine warm so you can redline immediately(sooner than usual)

05/29/2018 - 16:23 |
5 | 0
Anonymous

Except what if u park on it and break it?

05/29/2018 - 17:16 |
1 | 0

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