Which cars wirelessly charge your phone?
Ford announces it will join a group that already includes Toyota, Fiat-Chrysler, and General Motors.
Ford will soon join Toyota, Fiat-Chrysler, and General Motors in adding wireless charging to some car models, Forbes reports.
Often located in cars’ hidden storage bins or on the top of center console armrests, wireless charging systems allow drivers to charge their smartphones without having to disconnect or reconnect cables.
There are a few ways to pull off the trick of wireless charging, but Ford indicated it has chosen a method that should be compatible with a standard of technology supported by industry group the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP).
Ford is a little late to the game: Toyota started offering wireless charging in 2013 with the Toyota Avalon, and Fiat-Chrysler and General Motors weren’t long behind in developing their own technology for over a dozen vehicle models.
And this summer, Audi will unleash its first car with wireless charging, the Q7 SUV, in Europe.
Nick Sitarski, manager of electronics systems at Toyota, told Forbes he expects wireless charging to become “ubiquitous’’ in cars. Indeed, BMW and Daimler are also working on providing wireless charging in some of their next car models.
One big catch: Apple, the second largest worldwide smartphone seller, has yet to mention plans to put wireless charging into its iPhones. The Wall Street Journal reports there are about 80 phones available worldwide that currently come with built-in receivers for the wireless charging tech, but the market share of these phones means they’re not big options in the U.S.
Samsung – the world’s largest smartphone seller – has created the wireless charging technology for its latest Galaxy smartphone, and there have been recent clues that Apple may be working to implement its own system into the next iPhone.
It’s unclear exactly when Ford will roll out their new wireless charging tech, but we can only hope it’s in time for some long summer road trips.
Here are some car models that already have wireless charging:
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