Porsche reckons that plugging in an EV each night is a hassle. "Ease of use, suitability for everyday use and charging infrastructure are still the decisive factors when it comes to the acceptance of electric mobility," says Porsche Board Member for Development Michael Steiner.

To get around that, they've developed a wireless charging system for their electric Cayenne, consisting of a pad you leave on your garage floor. A power cable runs from the pad and is plugged into a 220V outlet; while this eliminates the need to install a charging station, you'd still need to hire an electrician to install the high-amperage outlet, unless you've already got 220V in your garage.

As for how it works, from a user point of view:

"To initiate the charging process, the Cayenne only has to be parked above the floor plate. A special view in the Surround View parking function makes it easier to maneuver the Cayenne to the optimal charging position."

"As soon as the parking position above the floor plate is reached and the parking brake is activated, the charging process begins. The contactless transfer of energy between the two charging units takes place over a distance of roughly four to six inches. To make this possible, the Cayenne reduces the ride height automatically."

That sounds neat, but seems it might be problematic, as it relies on the car's adaptive air suspension to lower itself. While adaptive air suspensions can be reliable if regularly maintained, there are more potential points of failure.

That said, they have thought about the safety aspect of the charging arrangement in case, say, the family cat wanders into the garage: "The base plate has a motion detector and foreign object detection. The charging process is automatically interrupted if interference is detected."

Porsche Wireless Charging will launch in Europe next year, and they say they'll expand to other markets after that.