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Tesla gives up on Cybertruck wireless charging (electrek.co)
4 points by DamnInteresting 3 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 5 comments


Any decent engineer could immediately tell you that wireless charging is not very efficient.

It works for a cellphone mainly because the battery is small, the device can be placed very close to the charger and the convenience is worth the wasted energy.

None of this applies in a case like the Cybertruck. But I suppose it makes for good hype.


There are electric buses with wireless charging in service in several places around the world. Efficiency is about 4% less than that of wired charging.


Reference?

Buses operate for long periods of time over designated routes but with frequent stops.

Under these unique conditions, improvements in overall efficiency (not necessarily the charging part itself) is made possible by more frequent charging (at bus stops for example) and thus allowing the use of smaller, lighter weight batteries.

This obviously doesn't apply to the CyberTruck.


Here's a Federal Transit Administration report, "Effectiveness of Wireless Charging for Electric Transit Buses" [1].

Here's on article on wireless bus charging at transit agencies in Washington [2].

[1] https://www.inductev.com/press-releases/sound-transit-to-go-...

[2] https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.dot.gov/files/2024-12/...


"With its proprietary on-route wireless solution now deployed throughout North America and Europe"

Yes, as expected and described above.

They are charging wirelessly at bus stops --- aka "on-route". This allows them to use smaller batteries with less weight for better *overall* efficiency.

This is obviously not applicable to CyberTruck and does not speak to the efficiency of the wireless charging process itself.




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