Tesla’s patenting wireless charging tech with bi-directional functionality

Tesla’s submitted a patent application for wireless electric vehicle charging tech. The owner of X seemingly wants even more hands-free-ness in electric car driving. X-citing.

And surprise! It's pretty much as you'd expect, really. A pair of pads containing electromagnetic coils would be installed - one to the underside of the Tesla, and one on the floor. The floor one would obviously be hardwired to a steady stream of electrons, while the one on the car would be wired to... your battery, obvs. Position the pads together and kapow: wireless charging.

Tesla hopes to create a system that will support a power supply between 200V and 800V. The paperwork discusses how the air suspension of the vehicle could bring the pads closer together, because the proximity of the pads from each other can impact how effective they are. Is this secretly a bid for a Tesla Lowrider?

Anyway. The application also talks of making it possible to send charge back from the car’s battery to the Grid via the pad. Hmm, interesting. Elon apparently isn’t the biggest fan of bi-directional charging, but has said all Tesla models will support it by 2025.

There are two big challenges to wireless charging, though. Firstly, ‘nearby ferrous objects’ can disrupt the magnetic field the coils use to recharge and discharge the electrons. To counteract this, sensors would assess the area around the car to manage any potential obstacles or objects that would interfere with the magnetic field. (Sorry, Iron Man, you are not invited.)

Secondly – as many of us know from wireless smartphone charging – getting the device placed on exactly the right spot to initiate charging isn’t always straightforward. X.. often doesn't mark the spot.

The patent tells us Tesla’s solution would resolve any difficulties caused by environmental factors (or someone’s really dodgy parking efforts) by using software and firmware to align the necessary components and maximise charge. Perhaps this is Park Assist's time to shine.

The patent is enhanced with extremely high-quality drawings showing the ground pad (essentially, a big square), how the other components might interface and the work flows required to make the thing work are included (above). There’s plenty of talk of coupling, perturbing coils and self-inductance, and if you want more of that wireless goodness, read it here.

It's worth noting the application was lodged with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), not just the US one, and Tesla has already had its charging cable design adopted as the North American charging standard (NACS). More on this as we get it.