Hacker News Reader

Comment by myrandomcomment | Hacker News Reader

Sitting in the passenger seat of the wife's Macan 4S EV right now. Installed 11.2KW charging for it. Had to stop at a super charger for 15 minutes as we had to take an unexpected long trip today and she never plugs it in until the car is at 30%. I would 100% install this in the floor. You park in the garage and it charges. It is perfect.

View on HN

To you what is the downside of lifting a cord and plugging it in, in essentially one motion, that is a bad enough downside that it justifies spending $8,000?

$8000 is nothing. You see what a Porsche EV costs?

The real problem is the power loss, which is fine for rich people doing personal installs in their home, but probably rules this out for high-volume charging services. I’m just not sure how big the “rich people personal installs” market is.

Not only that, but this requires object detection and the car suspension has to drop to (nearly) meet it, which seems like it’s enough work that automated contact charging can’t be wildly more difficult.

their site says it’s 90% efficient [0], which is impressive, but I agree, still sub-optimal for large scale installations.

The other thing is that it needs to be perfectly aligned. If you can’t be bothered to plug in a cable, can you be bothered to align your SUV in your garage perfectly with a charge pad?

[0] https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2025/products/porsche-wirele...

Sure, and they charge you individually for each little thing you want on it. But that doesn't mean $8000 is nothing.

The cost comparison should be with a plug that delivers 11kw. That’s going to be a lot more than zero dollars.

Nah. A single good 220 outlet is sufficient for keeping three actively used EVs well charged at home. We use a middle range one (40 amp, not 50) and it supports three cars easily. With 50 amp it would be even easier. Most houses come with these already installed.

Hell, a single good 110 outlet ("good" meaning higher amp, like a kitchen or garage outlet) is sufficient for keeping two actively used EVs well charged at home if Superchargers are available as a backup.

I’m in New Zealand and the average power point is 10 amp (240v). I haven’t realised how high the current is on US outlets.

>she never plugs it in until the car is at 30%

Sounds like the root cause is not technical at all. Why can she not just plug it in when she gets home?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com