Ram Trucks may beat out Tesla and Chinese companies by becoming the first car manufacturer to offer a widely-available factory original wireless charger for electric vehicles in the United States. This was revealed during the reveal of the Ram 1500 Revolution concept, which included a glimpse of the upcoming Ram Charger, an inductive charging robot unrelated to the Dodge Ramcharger truck.
“We know from our Real Talk tour that our customers aren’t just concerned for how long a charge will last on the road, but also how easy it is to charge,” said Ram’s CEO, Mike Koval. “And with our upcoming new inductive robot charger, or Ram Charger, that will make home charging as easy as possible,” he added during his keynote speech at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
According to Koval, the charging robot developed by EFI Automotive, will be put into production but is currently still in development. The robot navigates to the underside of the car, aligns itself with the inductive receiver on the vehicle, and then lifts a disc-shaped inductive pad to make contact with the car’s charging pad. Once charging is complete, the robot returns to its pole-shaped base.
The company claims that the robot’s design, which eliminates the air gap between the charger and receiver, results in an efficiency of 97%. Ram states that the robot can provide a power output of up to 7 kilowatts (kW) and can be programmed to charge the electric pickup during off-peak hours when electricity prices are lower. The company plans to begin production in 2025.
EFI Automotive asserts that its inductive charging robot can increase the vehicle’s battery life by 15%, though it has not provided specifics on how this number was determined, whether through charging power or charging habits or both. Currently, no American-made electric vehicles offer wireless charging capabilities, thus Ram could become the first US-based carmaker to offer such a device to a wide audience, if it succeeds in its development.
