Tesla may have purchased and quickly resold wireless charging company Wiferion, but that doesn't mean the automaker is abandoning wireless charging technology.
Electrek reported that the electric vehicle company purchased Wiferion in the summer, despite Tesla displaying little interest in wireless charging technology prior to this year. In early 2023, the company teased the development of a home charging station that's entirely wireless, suggesting a shifting attitude toward the technology.
Wireless charging isn't necessarily a massive asset for drivers, as manually plugging your car into a charger takes less than a minute and can quickly become muscle memory.
However, Electrek notes that wireless charging is more valuable as a feature for self-driving cars, as it would allow the automatic vehicles to complete every step of an EV journey rather than turning the responsibility back onto the driver once the car is parked and ready to fuel up.
Additionally, even if wireless charging doesn't drastically transform the EV driving experience, even the smallest technological changes that boost the value and capability of EVs in consumers' eyes is a win for the environment. This is due to the fact that they may compel buyers to switch from polluting, gas-guzzling vehicles to EVs, which produce substantially less pollution than their gas-powered counterparts, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
After all, gas-powered cars emit around 3.3 billion tons of carbon pollution annually, according to Statista, so it's incredibly important that we electrify our passenger vehicles as soon as possible.
PULS purchased Wiferion from Tesla, as the company said on its website, "Wireless charging specialist Wiferion becomes our new business unit PULS Wireless. Wiferion's customers will benefit from our engineering resources and global presence in production and application support."
However, Tesla retained the engineering team from Wifeiron in-house, which suggests that the team could be developing similar technology directly for Tesla now. Electrek expects Tesla to unveil information about wireless charging in the near future.
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