Are you still waiting on your Cybertruck? How about Apple’s AirPower? Need more devices charged up? Got $300 lying around the house? Then Tesla has the device for you. It’s a wireless charging pad that has the same design ethos as the Cybertruck, with angles and lines all over the place. The coolest part isn’t the design, however — it’s the charging tech.
Remember Apple Air Power?
Apple AirPower was going to revolutionize wireless charging. It was going to be a base station with a pad on it. So far, so wireless charging. The difference here being that you would be able to put your device — be that an iPhone, AirPods case, or Apple Watch — anywhere on the charging surface, and your device would charge.
The idea was to eliminate the need to faff about finding the perfect wireless charging spot. Apple has sorted this out in its own way with MagSafe, which clacks on the back of the phone, aligning the charging coils perfectly every time. AirPower is, therefore, likely a dead idea, one of the few products Apple has publicly announced without ever bringing it to market.
There are companies that have kept the dream alive, however. And it’s Elon Musk’s Tesla now bringing the concept back with this, the Wireless Charging Platform. Charging up to three devices at 15W, like AirPower it works to juice your devices no matter where they are placed on its surface.
Tesla’s offering makes use of FreePower, developed by charging tech company Aira, an idea that brings the concept of AirPower back to life. ‘Well that sounds cool’ seemingly said the Tesla engineers. ‘let’s put it in a plate that looks like a Cybertruck’.
Telsa isn’t the first to use the technology. When accessory maker Nomad used it in the Base Station Pro, it was certainly very cool, but it came with its own problems. Chief of which is a limitation of the tech itself — no Apple Watch charging. See, FreePower only works with Qi-enabled devices, so you’ll be stuck charging your iPhone 14 Pro and your AirPods Pro 2, not your Apple Watch. Shame.
The price for this cool thing? $300. At least this will actually get delivered though. It’s available to preorder in the Tesla store now.