View all Porsche Cayenne Reviews
► Charging without cables
► Coming to market this year
► Here’s how it works
Ever wondered why electric cars can’t charge wirelessly like your phone? Anyone who’s entangled themselves in grubby, heavy-duty charging cables when trying to top up their battery will be celebrating Porsche’s imminent launch of inductive charging on the new 2026 Cayenne Electric. The new EV arrives in the UK this June and the company is vowing to launch wireless charging before the end of the year.
It’s a tempting prospect. Instead of plugging in, drivers merely park over a charging plate attached to the floor of their garage or driveway, glance at the digital display on the dashboard to confirm they have aligned the car correctly and the rest is automatic. Adjustable suspension lowers the car a little, a digital handshake identifies the user and simple science transports electricity over the air from floor to battery.
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The technology has existed for smartphones and electric toothbrushes for years, but has until now been incapable of efficiently working at higher power outputs required for cars. Inductive charging creates a magnetic field between two coils of copper (one in the floor plate, one in the vehicle) and uses the same principles as an induction hob on your electric oven.
The base plate, which is 117cm long, 78cm wide and weighs a chunky 50kg, is packed with a transmitter coil made of copper and ferrites for your household alternating current (AC) to flow through, creating a magnetic field; this is the witchcraft which transfers the energy of up to 11 kilowatts to the electric car’s battery embedded in the chassis. It’s clever tech that works over a 12-18cm gap between ground and car and Porsche claims that there’s a 90% efficiency rate.
The Cayenne Electric has a secondary coil installed in the underside of the body, just behind the front axle. This acts as a receiver unit to take the AC before converting it into direct current (DC), so it can be stored in the vehicle’s 108kWh high-voltage battery.
Home charging at 11kW is considerably faster than plugging into a regular three-point domestic plug and is akin to the speed of a wallbox typically installed by most EV owners. In the UK charging will be restricted to the grid’s 7.6kW power rating. The charging plate can be installed by your own electrician or dealer, is fully waterproof and meets all European and US safety regulations for electromagnetic compatibility. It even includes sensors to detect the movement of an animal or foreign body, cancelling charge is anything erroneous strays into the magnetic field such as your cat or keys.
It’s important that you drive your car precisely over the plate to enable charging to take place. Porsche uses ultra-wideband technology to determine the car’s position and shows the driver a green dot and circle on the PCM touchscreen display so they can manoeuvre correctly. When the two are aligned, a password is checked over Wi-Fi and charging commences. The base unit has LTE and WLAN connectivity, allowing for remote software updates.
If all this sounds too good to be true, there is a catch: inductive charging is an option that will carry a Porsche-spec price tag – estimated to total around £6750 in total. You’ll have to really not want to lug mucky charging cables around to afford this new breakthrough tech, but over time the price is expected to fall significantly, if the technology catches on and scales up.
The priciest component is the ground plate, which will cost around £4750. The receiver plate in the car is listed at around £1700 while extra wiring and prep in the car will cost around £300 (the UK distributor is making this pre-prep package standard-fit, whereas customers elsewhere will have to stump up the extra).
‘Ease of use, suitability for everyday use and charging infrastructure are still the decisive factors when it comes to the acceptance of electric mobility,’ said Michael Steiner, Porsche’s R&D chief. ‘We are proud that inductive charging will soon be available in series production at Porsche. Charging an electric car at home has never been so easy and convenient.’
Porsche has been building electric cars for seven years now and its internal data proves that three quarters of all charges take place at home, suggesting that wireless charging will be a useful and regular benefit for its customers. It is also developing the tech for use in public car parks and envisages a future in which drivers drop the car at a valet area at a restaurant or shopping centre, letting the vehicle park and charge autonomously.
‘Porsche is the first car manufacturer in the world to offer contactless charging,’ Marco Schmerbeck, Porsche’s head director of energy systems, told CAR magazine. ‘It’s so simple to use and removes further barriers to going electric. In the morning, you’ll simply head downstairs, get in your Cayenne and drive off. It’s that easy.’
He said wireless charging was likely to spread to other ranges of Porsche electric car in the coming years, meaning the Macan and Taycan could follow suit.