Yes, it’s still a prototype, but Porsche is finally letting people experience what it’s next electric car will be like when it hits production next year. We got a briefing on the underpinnings of the new architecture for the Cayenne Electric, peeked at the very fancy finalized interior, and experienced a few hot laps being driven by one of Porsche‘s professional drivers.
The charging pad.
Courtesy of Jeremy White
However, the highlight was, oddly, none the above, it was getting to try out the Cayenne Electric’s party trick and experience exactly how Porsche’s wireless charging system works for the EV, and how ridiculously similar the process is to plonking your phone down on a Qi charging puck.
Reminiscent of BMW‘s 3.2-kilowatt 2018 attempt, this new wireless version from Porsche is finally fit for purpose because it can charge at the rates you get from EV home wall chargers—up to 11 kW. This means that just by rolling over the 50-kilogram floor pad, owners will be able to get a full charge on the electric SUV in 11 hours or so, brimming the 108-kWh battery overnight with no need to physically plug in. (Porsche covered a portion of my travel expenses to come see this in action.)
But how do you line up over that floor pad and get it in just the right spot to start charging when you can’t see the black slab when, as you roll toward the pad, it disappears out of your line of sight? Porsche has naturally sought to use the cabin central screen that flicks to camera feed overlaid with red and green lines for guidance, plus a green circle to help you aim for that 11-kW charging sweet spot.
The car offers visual guides to get you into the proper position.
Courtesy of Porsche
If you move the steering wheel on approach, the green lines move correspondingly on the central screen, which is split to show both a forward camera feed and a generated overhead view. (This is adapted from the car’s Surround View parking function.) Once you’re within spitting distance of the charger’s ideal position, a solid green target appears on the overhead feed. Your job is then to corral the green circle onto this marker.
Once all is in place, the car takes over, applying the parking brake and starting the charge without you pressing a button. The transfer of energy between pad and car takes place over a distance of a few centimeters, which the Cayenne itself sets by lowering automatically to the correct height. The whole setup can be used both inside and outside, so Porsche’s wireless charging isn’t dependent on garage space.
The pad under the car.
Courtesy of Jeremy White
But, for concerned pet owners, the important question is, most certainly, would transferring 11 kW through thin air using a magnetic field via the copper and ferrite coil in the base plate play havoc with a pooch or puss that decides to wander under the Cayenne Electric while you’re topping up the battery?
It turns out that both science and Porsche have got your pets’ backs here. As the coils are tuned to a frequency of around 85 kHz for EV wireless charging, no biological harm should be expected from magnetic fields in this range at these intensities. Energy transfer to living tissue is, thankfully, extremely inefficient; magnetic fields mostly pass through without inducing significant currents or heating.
In theory, small eddy currents could be induced in conductive tissues, causing mild local heating, but the power density would be far below thresholds for thermal damage. As for neurological or cardiac stimulation, the field would have to be thousands or even millions of times stronger before it could possibly affect a pet’s nerves or heart.
That’s some fast charging.
Courtesy of Porsche
However, while energy transfer to living tissue is terrible, when metal gets introduced—such as might be found in a pet collar or held by a clumsy human fetching a wrench from under the EV—the situation changes, but only slightly. A metal collar might get noticeably warm, possibly uncomfortable after several minutes, but for this to occur the cat or dog would have to remain seated on the pad for several minutes during charge time, ignoring the rise in temperature of its collar and shunning the instinctive reflex to move away.
For good measure, Porsche has included a motion detector and foreign object detection in the floor plate, which instantly shuts down the charging process if a living being or metallic object (such as a wrench) comes between the vehicle and the plate. Radar sensors on each side of the plate can apparently detect anything bigger than a golf ball, and the range of these sensors extends to cover the entire front half of the car.
The result? If Fido crawls under the EV to fetch a ball and comes within a whisker of the tech, power transfer immediately stops, then automatically starts again when the system senses no living or inanimate object is on or near the pad.
The Cayenne’s tidy interior.
Courtesy of Porsche
When charging using a more conventional cable, the Cayenne Electric’s 800-volt system can go from 10 to 80 percent in less than 16 minutes, and in just 10 minutes it can add more than 180 miles of range, with an optimal setup, of course. Porsche says the new SUV coming next year will be good for up to 373 miles of range on max charge.
Oddly, there’s no vehicle-to-load capability, letting you power household electrical appliances from the car, like you can already with brands such as Hyundai and Kia. “No one has asked for V2L,” I was told by Porsche reps. “As soon as people ask for it, we’ll put it in.” Let’s hold Porsche to that promise.
It’s been a rocky road for Porsche‘s transition to electric, what with secondhand Taycan values plummeting. The brand will be hoping the 155-mph Cayenne will turn things around. And it just might. The good news for now, however, is that if you plump for the optional wireless charging, any inquisitive furry friends should have nothing to worry about.
