Isn’t it annoying when you have to keep your car plugged into charging stations all the time? BMW knows that, and the company is introducing wireless inductive charging starting with the 2018 BMW 530e iPerformance next year, it will also be introduced to any future electric and hybrid BMW cars released thereafter. The concept isn’t too much different from our smartphones, as the current prototype of the BMW Wireless Charging device is a base plate that stays on your garage floor, park the car right above it, and your car will start charging as if it is plugged into a charging station, which helps eliminate the unfortunate event of forgetting to charge your car.
According to BMW Blog, the 530e iPerformance’s battery can be fully charged in 3.5 hours with the charging pad, which outputs up to 3.2kW of power, drivers will also be guided with the car’s iDrive system to park properly to initiate the charge. BMW has not revealed the price of the wireless charging pad, this gadget is expected to be sold as an optional package when you purchase electric vehicles from the company. BMW isn’t the first company to unveil wireless charging for cars, a company called Plugless has already introduced a wireless charging upgrade solution for the Tesla Model S, it isn’t an official solution from Tesla, but we should expect many other automobile companies to implement such features in the following year.
SOURCE: BMW Blog
