Buried in a press release titled, “Even more colours and even greater convenience for the Cayenne Electric” was news that...
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That’s a some 9kW lost on a 80kW battery. I get the convenience, but I think the best use for those would be when standardized and installed in public parking spots, for a brief charge bump, not to charge fully at home, e.g overnight, which is what Porsche aims for.
It's about the same as wired AC charging. There are always charging losses:
https://insideevs.com/features/711659/ev-charger-efficiency-...
I don't understand the mention about battery capacity (80 kWh, which would translate to around 7½ hours of charging at 11 kW, if a battery could charge at a uniform rate) or where the "9 kW lost" figure comes from.
*Which is probably useful to melt snow above the device, when installed outdoors on cold climates.
This would cost $0.15 to $0.20 per average trip to NOT plug in.
Average person spending $100k on a car would likely pay that without a second thought.
*kWh
Using the right units is important.
They were claiming that they’d gotten the losses down to 2x the wall to battery losses of wired chargers, by removing the transformer in the charger and handling the voltage conversion in the coils.
Also you’re prematurely optimizing. By comparing wireless charging to wired instead wireless to internal combustion. If we did things your way it would reduce the rate of electrification of the market. So calm down.
The way my house is set up I can only get power from the passenger side of my car and almost twenty feet away. There’s no EV I’m interested in that can b charged from that side. They tend to put them on the driver’s side to keep you from driving off while still plugged in. Wireless has no plugin. Which would also simplify public charging stations.
Plus you just got home. You probably want to go inside and may be carrying packages or such, which you might have to juggle or put down to get the cable and plug in.
When it’s time to leave you have to unplug and then store the cable, leave it on the floor (trip hazard for others), or have installed an overhead cable system.
With wireless it’s all gone. Pull into you’re garage? You’re done. You were doing that anyway, so it’s no different. Ready to leave? Just back out. Again, same thing. Nothing extra.
Yeah it’s convenience. But it’s not a small win, it’s big. And it’s every time you use your car. Twice.
Your car can always charge. It can always precondition. You used to have to go to gas stations, now you don’t even have to plug in. It’s fully automatic and taken care of for you.
“You don’t need a remote. You can just get up to change the volume”. How well did that argument go over? Every TV has remotes. Buttons are hidden and effectively dead.
Just laziness / not necessary for my commute. However, my understanding is that keeping the battery around 80% is better for lifespan. So, the convenience will actually result in longer lasting batteries?
AI;DR
Yet, the five seconds you save by not plugging in a USB cable have led to charging coils being added to nearly every phone to the market these days.
It's a flashy convenience feature, but this is Porsche we're talking about. People interested in buying these cars are all about flashy features without any practical use, because if they wanted a practical car, they wouldn't be buying a Porsche.
I cannot afford the Cayenne, but once this gets to cheaper models this will be an option I would be willing to pay for.
Yet I can see the advantages for someone with a disability.
And what a lot don't seem to understand: at 11kW we aren't talking about high charging efficiency anyway. Meaning, you cannot assume close to 100% for cable based charging and talk about how much 90% loose on a full battery (like others here do).
I also have a lot of trouble believing in the scenario of a neighborhood that has an automated charging station for EVs but no grid. That seems like very misplaced priorities.
This thread is full of people trying to invent problem to a solution.
Also adding in sentry mode and dashcam support to all Porsches would be some basic security need when it already contains great cameras.
Charging at home is already supere easy, that's never the part when I advise other people against owning an EV when they are asking me about it.
Telsa's are capable of both self-park and summon, but neither of these can charge the car without manual intervention.
This is why you can't just let the car go in or come out of your garage at home, no charging.
I could see it for restaurants or malls.
(they have a solution for this for the cybercab, but it has a port in a different place and is not wireless)
Read the full thread on Hacker News →
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