Porsche Solved Wireless Charging, Just Not Fitting It In The Car

• Porsche solved wireless charging in the upcoming Cayenne EV.
• That tech won’t trickle down to older models like the Taycan or Macan quite yet.
• The problem? Physics.

Porsche is pretty darn proud of solving inductive charging in its fancy new Cayenne EV. And it should be—it’s the first automaker to put wireless charging in a consumer EV straight from the factory. But it its older platforms like the Macan and Taycan? Those will, unfortunately, go without.

It turns out that the company that once installed engines in the wrong place on purpose can’t add wireless charging to its legacy EVs not because it’s too expensive or too new, but because it’s simply too big and the engineers can’t figure out where to put it.

Speaking with The Drive, Dr. Maximilian Muller, Porsche’s high-voltage engineering lead confirmed that the wireless charging tech won’t physically fit underneath either the smaller Taycan or Macan EVs.

Now, the Taycan and Cayenne makes sense. The Taycan is built on the VW group’s J1 platform, which is shared by other large sedans like the Porsche Panamera, Audi E-Tron GT and Bentley Continental. But the Macan is built on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), which is conveniently what the Cayenne is built on top of.

Despite the platform being shared, the issue is less about the underpinnings and more about the width available between the front suspension components.

The Drive explains the physical limitations spelled out by Muller.

The inductive charging plate mounts underneath the front motor on the Cayenne electric. This places it squarely between the front two wheels and suspension system.

The larger dimensions of the Cayenne Electric also forced different geometry for the suspension than what’s found on the Macan Electric. Muller noted this leads to further packaging issues preventing a retrofit into the existing electric models. This goes beyond a simple it won’t bolt right in situation.

It’s worth noting that wireless charging tech for EVs is still in its infancy. Porsche says that its offering is the first widely available 11-kilowatt pad. But being first will cost you a pretty penny. The hardware installed on the Cayenne and its accompanying pad will run around $8,000 (in Europe), which could feel like a steep price expensive just to save the few seconds it takes to plug-in. Then again, Porsche buyers aren’t known to balk at pricey options.

Muller says that engineers are in talks about adding wireless charging to older models, though specifics weren’t discussed. This could mean that the models may need to wait for a complete platform overhaul (which could result in a bloated model due to increased size requirements) or for the wireless charging tech to shrink.

Until then, Macan and Taycan owners will need to charge up the old-fashioned way—by plugging in.