Tesla Abandons Wireless EV Charging as Porsche Advances Technology

Cybertruck engineer says Tesla has abandoned plans for wireless charging The Cybertruck’s height has been cited as a factor preventing the tech from working Porsche has revealed it will introduce inductive technology next year

Tesla sparked speculation last year after several signs strongly suggested the firm was investigating wireless, inductive charging. But those expectations now appear to have been crushed.

Sharp-eyed Tesla followers first noticed images that seemed to show a wireless charging pad in a presentation during an investor day in 2023.

Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, later told Jay Leno in the buildup to the Cybertruck rollout that the company was developing inductive charging so owners wouldn’t need to plug in manually.

However, another Tesla staffer connected to the Cybertruck says that concept is dead. According to lead engineer Wes Morrill, there is “nothing planned there,” as reported by NotATeslaApp.

The site quotes a Discord conversation where Wes dismissed any speculation about the Cybertruck and inductive charging. “Wireless charging for something as far off the ground as the CT is silly,” he said, adding that to make up for the truck’s height, a wireless charging cradle would have to be at least six inches tall, which obviously wouldn’t be the streamlined solution Tesla had hoped for.

We’ve contacted Tesla for clarification, but the company hasn’t issued a statement to verify whether it ever pursued wireless charging, or if it has abandoned efforts to explore it further.

Last year, the Cybertruck Owner’s Club found references to release connectors for an Inductive Charger in the vehicle’s service manual, so the speculation had some grounding. But it appears the long wait could persist indefinitely.

Porsche leads the wireless charge

While we await confirmation from Tesla, this update about wireless charging could be viewed as another setback for the Cybertruck. Marketed as the zenith of Tesla technology, it’s already labelled a failure by many critics, given it has fallen short of original range estimates, faced multiple recalls, seen its much-praised extended-range battery pack dropped, and sold far fewer units than initially forecast.

As Tesla’s pace of EV innovation has slowed in recent years, other manufacturers have been taking advantage.

Porsche announced last week it will provide the world’s first production wireless charging pad on the forthcoming Cayenne SUV, enabling 11kW charging speeds without the messy cables. There’s no information yet on cost or expected adoption rates, but it feels like a technological advance for EVs nonetheless.