- Tesla won’t be giving the Cybertruck wireless charging after all.
- News comes from the Cybertruck’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill.
- According to reports, the truck’s ground clearance is the main reason that the tech won’t make it to market.
The Tesla Cybertruck is basically a science experiment on wheels. Between its stainless steel body, its 48-volt architecture and steer-by-wire tech, the electric truck has a bunch of new tech stuffed into a weird wedge-shaped body. But one of the most interesting features of all that was projected to make it to the truck won’t actually make it to market: wireless charging.
Tesla has been working on that for a few years. Even designer Franz von Holzhausen spilled the beans during Jay Leno’s review of the Cybertruck that the company was experimenting with a no-hassle solution to charging. Sadly, according to NotATeslaApp, that’s no longer happening.
Photo by: Tesla
The news comes from the Cybertruck’s lead engineer, Wes Morrill, who reportedly shut down rumors of the wireless charging once and for all. “Nothing planned there,” said Morrill on a Discord chat, referring to the wireless charging functionality originally rumored for the Cybertruck.
Many folks probably forgot all about the wireless charging functionality. It was never officially promised, after all. However, owners quickly uncovered the potential of a wireless charging upgrade last year thanks to a page in the Cybertruck’s service manual.
In the manual, Tesla described the connectors as a place where an “inductive charger” (a fancy name for wireless charging) can be plugged in directly to the battery pack itself. All signs pointed to Tesla future-proofing its testbed-on-wheels for new tech. But, as Morrill confirmed, it’s not happening. Aside from whether or not the tech is ready, the lead engineer also says that it’s not feasible to wirelessly charge the Cybertruck at all given how high the truck is from the ground:
“Wireless charging for something as far off the ground as CT is silly. You’d need a base station that’s like 6 inches tall,” Morrill explains. He goes on to note why Tesla didn’t just make the Cybertruck’s “trunk tub” lower rather than some giant electric obelisk: “The main reason we didn’t make the trunk tub fill that space was actually we did that initially and no one could reach stuff at the bottom because it was too deep.
Here’s the issue—wireless charging is already inefficient. Some players are working on it, sure. But the further the current needs to travel over the air, the less efficient it is. And if Tesla doesn’t want to sacrifice on ground clearance, then it needs to figure out a way to make the transmitting antenna and receiving antenna closer together. Given the less-than-stellar sales volume of the Cybertruck, Tesla may just just decided that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.
Now the Cybercab? That still has some potential. Tesla needs to find a way to automate charging with that vehicle, especially since it’s something that is expected to work with little (if any) human intervention. So wireless charging isn’t dead at Tesla—it’s just not coming to its stainless steel doorstop like originally planned.
Porsche Wireless Charging
Photo by: Porsche
Then again, companies that are actually eager to build more consumer-driven EVs seem to be running with the idea. Porsche announced recently that the Cayenne Electric will debut with an optional wireless charging system when it goes on sale in 2026. Charging power will peak at 11 kilowatts, which is equal to or better than your average home Level 2 plug. While the Cayenne is tall, it doesn’t have the ground clearance disadvantage the Cybertruck has.
Once again, other companies are running away with what Tesla started.
