The 2026 electric Porsche Cayenne will feature a charging pad that functions similarly to a smartphone’s. When parked, the electric Cayenne can recharge through a ground plate beneath it if properly aligned. The price of the 11-kW power of the U.S specified wireless charger from Porsche is not known. Since 911 hasn’t suddenly gone back thirty years, fans shouldn’t be too happy when Porsche comes out with an air-cooled product again. At today’s Munich IAA Mobility event, Porsche showed off its new inductive charge technology. If the idea of plugging in a charging cable for your upcoming Cayenne EV, set to launch next year, feels inconvenient, Porsche has a solution. The only hard thing about the new wireless charging system is finding a place to park on a black pad that doesn’t stand out in your garage or yard. BMW tried a trial program in 2019 that never took off, so this is not the first time the company has tried to charge an electric vehicle wirelessly. This idea of charging wirelessly is not new, though. Because of smartphones and other modern tech, we’re all used to it. An alternating current flows “over the air” in this very basic technology because of a magnetic field that forms between the device and the source of the current. This is also true of Porsche’s approach, which has both a vehicle plate and a floor plate. The plate beneath the vehicle uses liquid cooling, whereas the floor relies on air cooling. As the name suggests, fitting the plate is a tough job. Because it is built into the body of the car, Porsche won’t be adding this technology to its current line of EVs any time soon. The vehicle plate and the wire that goes with it weigh 33 pounds together. The pre-wiring component must be chosen as an option at the factory during the build process in order to have this feature. With that wire, the Porsche dealer near you could add a charging plate to a Cayenne EV that didn’t have one when it was first built. With a single-phase 240-volt, 48-amp output, the 11-kW pad weighs 110 pounds and can charge in ranges from -40 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. It is planned to be available for purchase in the United States. However, you may question whether it is actually safe. Of course, Porsche checked out the equipment in line with all the rules, and they said that driving a car like a Hummer right over the pad would not hurt it. The magnetic field, which you can’t see, detects that your cat is interested in it, like sonar, and stops the charge for a short time. There is also a system that stops charging when a metal item, like a wrench, is put on the pad. Even when it rains, snows, or leaves fall, the pad will still charge. You can leave it in your yard all year. Porsche states that the Cayenne’s battery pack and power system can reach “up to” 90% efficiency, indicating some energy loss when charging with a Level 2 connector. That said, reports indicate that wireless charging delivers even lower efficiency. This number may change, though, if wireless charging happens in places that are too hot or too cold. Porsche has made it very easy to use the pad. To better understand it, compare it to a home Wi-Fi router. After entering the code and pairing it once, you won’t need to repeat the process. Your phone can access all the information you would expect because it is fully merged into the MyPorsche app. We watched it being shown to us very slowly. The Cayenne instantly goes into Park Assist mode when it is less than 25 feet away. Follow the lines on the screen as you move forward toward the ground pad, which is about 46 inches long, 31 inches wide, and just over 2 inches high. This will help you stay on track. When you’re about five feet away, you need to put one of the two circles on the screen on top of the other. It’s very simple, and it keeps the vehicle and pad properly lined up all the time. After that, the Cayenne will drop onto its air suspension to make sure there is enough space between the plates. While Porsche USA has not announced the cost of the plate and pad yet, an engineer informed us that the option price in Germany is approximately $ 9,500 for all the necessary parts for wireless charging. This means that the convenience will come at a price, but it is undeniably appealing.
