Cybertruck is inductive charging ready! Battery connector harness spotted in Service Manual

[BannedByTMC]

Inductive charging is so useless, all it does is generate heat and waste energy, no, thanks it's literally 2 steps to plug in your car people this is not needed.

This is incorrect. Efficiency is very close to plug in levels. It also eliminates cords in areas where they may not be practical or prone to theft and damage, such as curbside parking. This is really key technology to enabling apartment dwelling EV adoption. From 6 years ago:

The wireless system transfers 120 kilowatts of power with 97 percent efficiency, which is comparable to conventional, wired high-power fast chargers. In the laboratory demonstration, power was transferred across a six-inch air gap between two magnetic coils and charged a battery pack.

https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-demonstrates-120-kilowatt-wireless-charging-vehicles

Sponsored

 

[Gurule92]

We knew this was coming

Tesla acquired Wiferion last year

https://www.wiferion.com/us/

At the time there were touting a 93% efficiency rating!!

I have no doubt that Tesla has improved on this efficiency since then

I would expect for this to launch later this year alongside the extended battery

Buying a company doesn't guarantee it's tech gets used.

They bought some super capacitor place too didn't they? They may have implemented some stuff but idk

 

[TexasRaider]

Wouldn’t the “range extender” possibly make use of this connection?

 

[Shygar]

Maybe this is how they will connect the bed battery pack?

 

[RandyS]

In my 10 years of EV experience, I only saw a need for wireless charging with Fleet vehicles (where drivers either forget to plug in for the next person or are just not that savvy when it comes to charging). Don't know how many times I heard that a fleet car at work wasn't charged up because someone took a trip and didn't bother to plug the car back in afterwards. So I'll accept the charging loss as "worth it" in that case. But as far as charging in a residential situation, etc. I want every kWh to go to the car via the plug...

 

[BannedByTMC]

They bought some super capacitor place too didn't they? They may have implemented some stuff but idk

Yes, they bought Maxwell for the DBE tech they are using in the 4680 cells.

 

[BannedByTMC]

Wouldn’t the “range extender” possibly make use of this connection?

Maybe this is how they will connect the bed battery pack?

First, the manual says it's for induction charging, second, the connectors are much too small for traction pack current levels, not even close.

 

[Rocketman]

I think the more likely use cases for wireless charging are for the Robo Taxi Network and public level 2 charging, where cord length no longer is an issue, nor having to replace cords that get damaged.

…and there’s no driver to plug it in…

 

[cybercoffee]

My understanding is that it's a much different technology than you're thinking.

Magnetic induction = phone charging, gets hot and wastes energy
Magnetic resonance = tesla wireless charger, close to the efficiency of a cord

Magnetic resonance is much more expensive and for phones you don't care if you waste an extra 5W as heat. So nothing uses that technology. But now we need it for car charging.

I was always pretty partial to the robotic tentacle charger that they demoed, but wireless charger will serve the same function, so fine by me.

to be fair, both use the principle of magnetic induction to get energy from the source to the destination, so even though the consumer-facing names may sound different, resonant charging is a subset of induction charging. I was reading up more on it and I was surprised that Qi has a resonant charging protocol already (and has had for years)--I'd never thought much about it.

 

[pricedm]

I'd like to propose a use case here that I haven't seen discussed yet.

My wife does not want to take her MYLR on road trips... ever. Well, if she's following me like when we moved, she will. Here's her issue that inductive charging could help someday:

Sketchy charge locations / people.

How is this different from a liquid fuel hose connected to her car?

Anyway, if someone is that close to you with bad intentions, regadless if you're on motorcycle, car, etc., it is pretty much too late for anything except surrender or hand-to-hand combat. Reaching for mace / bear spray in your car door pocket might work. Not sure I'd try it tho with a gun pointed in my face by a meth-fueled perp.

 

[BannedByTMC]

How is this different from a liquid fuel hose connected to her car?

You aren't standing there holding the charge cord for 5 minutes, you're likely sitting in your car doing something else for 15+ minutes and not constantly looking around your surroundings the entire time. It's a completely different situation.

 

[utahken]

Curious of the price….
…and what happens to the cat if it runs under the car

And we thought cats like starlink heaters!

 

[utahken]

Don't forget this technology will make supercharging in sketchy places safer. There is no need to get out of the vehicle to disconnect a plug if you feel threatened. And yes, this technology works with high power charging.

 

[TyPope]

How is this different from a liquid fuel hose connected to her car?

Anyway, if someone is that close to you with bad intentions, regadless if you're on motorcycle, car, etc., it is pretty much too late for anything except surrender or hand-to-hand combat. Reaching for mace / bear spray in your car door pocket might work. Not sure I'd try it tho with a gun pointed in my face by a meth-fueled perp.

She is worried that while she's sitting in her car out away from whatever business the chargers are located near (back of parking lot) and someone drives up, gets out of their car and approaches hers, she would be unable to simply drive away. Maybe she sees them eyeing her or her car and it becomes obvious they are looking to be up to no good. Sure, that can happen at a gas station but she's at least around other people and if this station looks sketchy, she can go to the next.

Look, I don't care. I'm usually armed. But not her. Anyway, if she's sitting charging and someone drives up, she has to make a quick decision to either unplug in a hurry or keep on charging on. If the situation becomes unsafe, she currently has no way to unplug to drive away.

Sure, if someone is blocking her car in, it's not good. Anyway, the safety factor would go up a bit if she could just drive away.

Edge case? Of course.

P.S. I've seen people drive away without disconnecting the fuel hose...

 

[kbolt]

Looking at the comments here, I believe most are missing the poi t of the bigger (future) picture.

Think 10 to 20 years ahead. How do you future-proof the vehicle, eliminate range anxiety, and remove the perception of increased expense with an electric vehicle (perception being the key word here)? You make charging ubiquitous and hidden.

How do you do with with electric charging? You give the vehicle the ability to charge wirelessly. You allow the vehicle to charge anywhere. And you build the infrastructure to place charging pads where vehicle pause, sit, or travel on long, remote, stretches of road. Vehicles then pick up short duration charges or charge wirelessly while driving.

Examples (actually used in Scandinavia today for public busses and some city vehicles, including some short road stretches for charging while driving):
- Stop lights
- Parking spots.
- Remote highways between larger public installs or chargers
- Bus lanes (for public transit)
- Cab stands/Ride share lots

I am impressed Tesla is preparing the CT to be future-ready. It shows they are focused on the long-run and not just short term returns. I would venture to guess that the header install in this post will become standard in the not too distant future.

I wonder how much extra range you would get if every stop light had some pads for charging. It would only be 1-2 minutes and it probably wouldn't be under every car. But over the course of a week would that get you an extra 1-2 miles or would it be significantly more?

Sponsored