In late March 2019, Apple finally canceled its AirPower wireless charging pad. Perhaps a bit too ambitious for the time, the 30-coil pad was unveiled in September 2017 only for Apple to put the kibosh on the product 562 days later. With the mat, users were supposed to be able to wirelessly charge an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and the AirPods carrying case all at the same time.
At the time of the cancellation, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, Dan Riccio, apologized and said that AirPower could not live up to Apple’s high standards giving the company no other choice but to cancel it. Reportedly, the product had a problem with the spacing of the 30 coils needed for AirPower which caused the product to overheat in tests.
Tesla has devised its own 30-coil wireless charger (via The Verge) that it expects to start shipping in February of next year. The coils come from FreePower but the design is all Tesla. In fact, the company says it is “inspired by the angular design and metallic styling of Cybertruck.” The price of the Qi-compatible pad will be $300 and the devices being charged by the product can be placed on it in any orientation. And the product will come with a magnetic base that can be used to prop up the charger at an angle.
One major difference between Tesla’s 30-coil charger and AirPower is that the latter promised to charge your Apple Watch. Tesla’s product, since it works only with Qi-compatible devices, will not be able to charge the Apple Watch, the Galaxy Watch, or the Pixel Watch. What Tesla’s charging pad will do is replenish the battery inside three devices simultaneously at 15W each. The pictures used on Tesla’s site show the pad wirelessly chargina two phones at one time, or a phone and a carrying case for wireless earbuds.
You can now pre-order the Tesla’s wireless charger which comes equipped with an integrated USB-C cable and a 65W USB-C power adapter.
