Welcome back everyone, I'm Jordan Geisigee and this is The Limiting Factor. In the last video of this two-part series on wireless charging for EVs, I covered key points such as its basic architecture, the costs involved, and its end-to-end efficiency. Today, I'll get into the nitty-gritty details like safety, compatibility between vehicle or wireless charging brands, how precisely the vehicle needs to be positioned over the wireless charger to charge, and what wireless charging could mean for Tesla's other products like the Cybertruck and Optimus. Before we begin, a special thanks to my Patreon supporters, YouTube members and Twitter subscribers, as well as RebellionAir.com. They specialize in helping investors manage concentrated positions. RebellionAir can help with covered calls, risk management, and creating a money master plan from your financial first principles.
For this video, I'd also like to thank Jeremy McCool of Hevo. Jeremy generously provided technical and cost information about Hevo's wireless technology, which is likely very similar to Tesla's wireless charging technology. So even though this video is about Tesla's wireless charging, I'll be making heavy reference to information from Hevo's technology, because so far, we know very little about Tesla's wireless charging system. As usual, this is my best attempt at communicating a complex topic, so any errors in the video are my own, and not related to advice from Hevo. Let's start with vehicle position. As I said in the last video, the wireless charger for your smartphone uses inductive charging that requires the wireless charger and phone to be positioned precisely to transfer power. That's as opposed to the wireless charger on a vehicle, which uses resonant inductive charging that can provide power over greater distances and is somewhat flexible in terms of charge pad positioning.
So how tight are the tolerances on the X, Y, and Z axes? By X and Y axes, I mean how far forward, backward, left, and right that a vehicle is positioned in the parking space. By the Z axis, I mean the height and distance between the charging pads. With regards to the X and Y axes, as long as the vehicle is positioned within the lines on a typical parking space, the vehicle will begin charging. With that said, the more accurately the vehicle is positioned over the ground pad, the better. It's because Hevo, and likely Tesla as well, has designed their system to always optimize for efficiency rather than power output. That means although the vehicle position is somewhat flexible, depending on how far out of alignment the charging pads are, it will affect the amount of power that's being delivered to the vehicle.
那么,X、Y 和 Z 轴的公差有多严格呢?在这里,X 和 Y 轴指的是车辆在停车位中的前后和左右位置。Z 轴指的是充电板之间的高度和距离。关于X和Y轴,只要车辆停在停车位的划线内,就会开始充电。但是,车辆在地面充电板上方的位置越准确越好。这是因为Hevo公司(可能还有特斯拉)设计的系统总是优先优化效率而非功率输出。这意味着虽然车辆的位置有一定的灵活性,但根据充电板的对齐程度不同,它会影响输送到车辆的电量。
With regards to the Z axis, 4 to 10 inches, or 10 to 25 centimeters is the sweet spot, but the vehicle will charge as close as 2 to 3 inches to the charging pad, or about 5 to 8 centimeters, and as far away as 12 inches from the charging pad, or about 30 centimeters. For reference, the cyber truck has adjustable ride height, but can drop as low as 8 inches. The Model 3 has a ground clearance of about 5.4 inches, and the Model Y, 6 to 7 inches depending on if it's a performance or non-performance trim. That is, most of Tesla's vehicles are right in the sweet spot for wireless charging, and that's regardless of whether the ground pad or power pad is buried in the parking surface or protruding from the parking surface.
As a side note, given that Tesla's vehicles are capable of parking themselves, and will get better at it over time, parking precision for wireless charging isn't likely to be an issue in the future. Let's move on to safety. The biggest safety risk for wireless chargers is foreign objects that come between the charging pads. Just like an inductive stovetop, if a piece of metal is laying on the ground pad and the vehicle starts the charging cycle, that piece of metal could rapidly heat up, causing a fire or injury. So you'd want to keep the charging pad clear of tools, small pieces of metal that are mixed in with dry combustible material like leaves, or pets that are wearing collars that contain metal.
It would of course also be a potential for vandalism, like someone throwing a piece of metal under the vehicle. With that said, there are ways to mitigate those risks. For example, Hivo has what's called guardian detection, which uses a combination of motion and thermal sensors to detect objects on or around the power pad before and during a charging session. That of course wouldn't completely eliminate the risks I called out above, because sensors can be fooled, but would cover most circumstances. So overall, in my view, wireless vehicle charging appears to be safer than the average kitchen stovetop.
While we're on the topic of safety, would the inductive charger generate any electromagnetic fields that would be harmful to humans? No, because wireless inductive charging generates electromagnetic fields and frequencies that are considered safe for humans. It typically operates in the kilohertz range and is tuned to interact with the copper inductive charging coils. That's as opposed to, for example, microwaves that operate at much higher frequencies in the megahertz to gigahertz range, which can heat water molecules in tissues, posing a biological risk. That is, any biological risks with wireless charging are all indirect due to the fact that inductive fields can heat metal. But as I said, there will be safety mechanisms in place to mitigate those risks.
Next, let's move on to compatibility. Will any vehicle of any brand be able to use any wireless charger of any brand? In short, yes, it's likely. Much like the cell phone industry agreed on the Qi wireless charging standard, SAE, or the Society of Automotive Engineers, developed a wireless charging standard for light-duty vehicles, which is called J2954. J2954 lays out communications protocols and charging frequencies so that any vehicles and chargers that use the charging standard are compatible. Heavos wireless charging equipment is fully qualified under J2954, and so would be compatible with any other vehicle or system that uses that charging standard.
The question is, will Tesla use the SAE standard and also be compatible? It looks promising. Why? Why Tricity, which was a company spun out of MIT, played a key role in developing the SAE standard and they own intellectual property for wireless charging. Why Tricity licensed some of their technology to Wifurian in 2022? And Wifurian, in turn, was acquired by Tesla in 2023. Tesla did subsequently sell Wifurian almost immediately, but did keep some of its engineers. That talent acquisition may indicate that Tesla will use SAE-compatible charging equipment, and therefore be compatible with the wireless charging equipment of other automakers.
What if Tesla decides to develop their own hardware standard? Then, like the last time Tesla developed their own charging standard, the North American charging standard for wired charging, the rest of the automakers in the US would likely be forced to adopt Tesla standard. That's because, like last time, I expect Tesla will likely have more wireless chargers installed more quickly than any other automaker. With all that said, based on Tesla's wireless charging video, I'd say the most likely scenario is that Tesla is partially adopting the SAE standard. Why do I say that? The SAE standard is for the charging pad to be placed in the front third of the vehicle. That's because it was designed for human drivers, and during testing, they found that human drivers were able to position the vehicle more precisely over the charging pad when it was in the front.
But that standard was developed before vehicles could park themselves. As I said earlier, self-parking functionality will sidestep the parking precision problem. That means it may make more sense for the vehicle to back into the charging stall. That's because it allows the vehicle to leave the parking stall more safely and quickly. And as you can see in the wireless charging teaser, Tesla has placed the charger near the rear bumper rather than the front third of the vehicle. That is, in terms of positioning the vehicle in the charging stall, we may end up seeing some of the same issues that we saw with wired charging, where each manufacturer decided to place the charging port in a different location on the vehicle.
With that said, so long as auto manufacturers like Tesla are all using the rest of the SAE standard, like the same charging frequency, charging compatibility won't be quite the pantomime horse that it was last time, where different manufacturers were not only placing the charging port in different locations, but also using different charging plugs. This time, the only real difficulty I expect is that a vehicle might have to reverse into the charging stall instead of pulling straight in, or vice versa. I may be incorrect here, but I'm hopeful that the auto industry has learned from the past.
Next, will wireless charging for vehicles be available as aftermarket kits? Or will it primarily just be available directly from the vehicle manufacturer as an option or feature? In my view, the widespread use of aftermarket kits is unlikely. That's because the underside of every vehicle is different, modifying the high voltage system of a vehicle is dangerous, and it would be technically complex to tie into the hardware and software of the charging system of existing EVs. That is, the kits would likely be low volume and high cost, so very few people would be willing to pay the thousands of dollars it would cost to avoid plugging their vehicle in. The exception would be if the manufacturer had pre-installed a hardware adapter for wireless charging from the factory, which is exactly what Tesla appears to have done with the Cybertruck and what I expect they'll do with other vehicles in their lineup in the future.
However, I'd caution that I expect Tesla's wireless chargers will only be capable of 11-50 kW, and so they may not be capable of fast charging. Why? As I showed in the last video, increasing the power level for wireless charging increases the cost. That's because higher charging power requires more or larger inductive copper charging coils. So Tesla could offer higher wireless fast charging of hundreds of kW, but it would mean they might have to charge a large premium for the equipment. As a side note, if you're curious about Hevo's production and deployment plans, they're starting production of their equipment in 2026. Then, there are two automakers that will start incorporating Hevo's wireless charging equipment on their vehicles in late 2027, with volume production coming in 2028. On that note, is Hevo concerned about any competitive or patent conflicts with Tesla's wireless charging? No, I asked Hevo that question and their response was, quote, a rising tide lifts all boats. Tesla is bringing awareness of this technology to the forefront, which will create acceptance and demand for the feature, end quote.
Next, what will the infrastructure rollout look like for wireless charging equipment? That's important because without that infrastructure, vehicles that completely forego wired charging in favor of wireless charging, like the cybercab, won't be able to charge. In fact, wireless charging infrastructure could become one of the rate limiting factors for the deployment of the cybercab. In order to address the scaling challenge, in my view, Tesla will take a three-pronged approach. First, the tip of the spear will be selling the cybercab and wireless chargers to individual customers or fleets. That offloads the logistics, workload, and costs of installing the chargers to customers, so that Tesla can focus on the manufacturing ramp of the cybercab and wireless charging equipment. Second, Tesla can rapidly deploy charging pads to existing supercharger locations by tying into the existing grid connection. If the wireless chargers end up being around 25 kilowatts, and a typical supercharger provides 250 kilowatts, that means Tesla could install 10 wireless charging stalls for the power supply equipment that's needed for one supercharger stall. Given that Tesla has nearly 3,000 charging sites in North America, the backbone for a rapid build-out of wireless chargers is already in place. Third, Tesla can create new charging locations that are dedicated to wireless charging. This would take the most work, but it would allow Tesla to start optimizing fleet placement, traffic patterns, and create hubs where the cybercabs can be cleaned and serviced.
Next, is it possible to embed wireless charging in roads, or pre-fabricate it into Tesla's boring tunnels so vehicles can charge while they drive? Yes, and in the long term, that could result in enormous savings. That's because it would allow most of the batteries to be removed from the vehicle, making them dramatically cheaper, whiter, and more efficient. However, the catch is that it would cost billions of dollars, years, or even decades to embed enough wireless charging in roads to make it ubiquitous enough that EV manufacturers would feel comfortable designing and manufacturing vehicles with stripped-down battery packs. Also, who's going to shoulder the investment cost for roads that wirelessly charge vehicles? It's not clear to me if you have an opinion, let me know in the comments below.
Next, let's tie up several loose ends by doing some rapid-fire Q&A. How is each part of the wireless charging system cool? The power station is air-cooled with a heat sink. The power pad and vehicle pad are passively cooled by the surrounding environment through their cases, and the battery adapter ties into the vehicle's cooling system. However, that's for an 11kW system. At higher power levels, the charging pads might also need active cooling systems that use air or liquid. What are the mounting options for the ground or power pad? It can be flush mounted like a manhole cover, surface mounted with masonry anchors so that it's fully above the road surface, or it can be embedded in asphalt or concrete, or even under-paver bricks or gravel. So long as the charging pads are aligned, the correct distance from each other, and there's nothing metallic between them, they'll couple and transfer energy. On that note, what about water, ice, snow, and leaves? Will they affect wireless charging? No, the ground pads will be designed to be robust to decades of environmental abuse of all kinds. Lastly, what about Optimus, Tesla's robot? Will it use wireless charging? For the time being, it doesn't appear that Optimus is using wireless charging, because the charging hook has what looks like metallic conductor contacts. That doesn't mean it won't use wireless charging in the future, and I don't have a strong opinion as to whether that's likely. In any case, here are the arguments for and against wireless charging for Optimus.
A vehicle has comparatively little freedom of movement along all axes compared to a robot, and it can't manipulate its environment. So wireless charging is the most durable and cheapest way to self-charge. Optimus, on the other hand, could use a number of different wired or wireless charging solutions to charge itself. That means the decision to use wired or wireless charging for Optimus comes down to other factors. Wired charging is slightly more energy efficient, and would allow Optimus to hang itself up at the end of its shift for charging. It has the benefit of stowing the robot safely in a standing position while it's powered down so that it takes up less space and doesn't fall over. That is, the charging hook would serve several purposes. Wireless charging, on the other hand, would be more durable because there would be no connection point to wear out, meaning lower maintenance and repair costs over time. That would be especially important for industrial or commercial use cases. If you can think of any other positives or negatives that might sway the argument for wired or wireless charging for Optimus, let me know in the comments below.
In summary, wireless charging is probably safer than the average stovetop thanks to safety mechanisms. It's fairly flexible in terms of vehicle position and ride height, and it has existing charging standards, which likely means that vehicles and chargers from different brands will eventually be compatible, and the biggest challenge now appears to be the mass deployment of wireless chargers to ensure there's chargers available for vehicles that can only use wireless charging, like the cybercap. However, that remaining challenge is easily solved by selling wireless chargers with the vehicles and by building out wireless charging stalls at existing supercharger locations. Tesla could, of course, also build out dedicated cybercab hubs with all the requisite care and feeding equipment, but that won't happen at scale overnight.
So in my view, Tesla will deploy their own cybercab fleet, city by city, deploying hundreds of cybercabs at a time along with the infrastructure to support them. That is a targeted and methodical approach. In the meantime, individuals and fleet owners will build out the cybercab network in a more distributed fashion. If you enjoyed this video, please consider supporting the channel by using the links in the description. Also consider following me on X. I often use X as a test bed for sharing ideas, and X subscribers like my Patreon supporters generally get access to my videos a week early. On that note, a special thanks to my YouTube members, X subscribers, and all the other patrons listed in the credits. I appreciate all of your support, and thanks for tuning in.