Wireless phone charging pads are common accessories to pair with a smartphone in 2024, with almost every new flagship device now capable of charging without a plug-in cable. It’s become a popular addition to car cockpits, as automakers attempt to give the vehicle a more premium appeal – however it’s often done quite poorly. The Volvo EX30, however, has aced the assignment, and it’s cause for celebration.
We’ve got some ground to cover, so let’s just get the basics out of the way. Think about the mode of operation with a wireless charger; your phone needs to be placed on a mat or puck that perfectly aligns with the wireless charging components between both devices. Fail to achieve perfect face-to-face connection, and it won’t get power. It’s a pain for many wireless charger users, made even worse when the charging pad isn’t the right size for the phone (though this is rarely an issue).
‘Qi 2’ wireless charging (pronounced ‘Chi two’) introduced a requirement for magnetism already demonstrated with Apple‘s MagSafe that solved the alignment issue thanks to the Magnetic Power Profile (though, confusingly, some Qi 2 chargers can be sold with the ‘Extended Power Profile’, shedding the magnets). But up until now only iPhones since the 12 series and the HMD Skyline, an Android phone released in 2024, have adopted the standard.
So what happens when you put the technology into a car? You face a whole new suite of problems. Suddenly the environment is moving at inconsistent speeds and in different directions. Depending on the interior design, the location of a wireless charger could be potentially problematic; if it’s at a slant on the centre console without any barriers surrounding it, it’s likely to have a one-way trip to the floor when you make a tight turn or accelerate aggressively. Even driving carefully could result in the phone breaking contact with the charger.
Trying to solve this problem isn’t easy, and I’ve seen some egregious attempts at trying to solve wireless charger location issues. The worst I’ve seen was in a very good car – the Audi E-Tron GT – which positioned the wireless charger in the center car armrest. In this position, it was tightly packed against the side of the compartment with a bracket forcing contact against the charger. It would get extremely hot in this position, to the point where I would be concerned for my phone if I left it there any longer.
Thankfully, Volvo has made the car phone wireless charger work perfectly – and it did it quite simply.
Wireless phone charging in a car done right
In the Volvo EX30, there are two wireless chargers – one for each front seat. These are positioned below the infotainment system, and unique to the EX30, below the centralized glovebox (yes, the glovebox is in the middle and not immediately in front of the front passenger seat).
It’s similar to Tesla’s approach, and indeed many cars position their wireless chargers in this same spot, but I usually find them to be somewhat incomplete in their development. Depending on the materials used for both the mat and the phone (and its case), your device could still slide around and stop charging. Not in the EX30.
In Volvo’s entry-level SUV, phones are kept at a slant, firm in place with a rubber grip that firmly presses the phone against the charging mat – kind of like a seatbelt. It works perfectly.
It innovates on a similar design I saw when reviewing the BMW iX1 – where a hard plastic seatbelt design was used. Even then, the phone was not kept so sturdily in place. It could still slip left and right, or bump out of place upon acceleration (though for the most part it was successful at keeping the phone in contact with the charging mat). To activate the seatbelt, you’d latch it into place, pulling the plastic up.
The EX30, with its strong, rubber-based containment, perfects the approach with no moving parts. There’s no seatbelt to latch or unlatch, as it’s there persistently. You just stuff your phone in; it’s ventilated so it doesn’t get too hot, unlike with the earlier mentioned Audi design, and it’s close enough to not cause issues with your wireless phone connection. The phone doesn’t drift around and stays charging quite reliably.
And it seems so simple, right? It’s not even a technical solution, it’s a physical solution. The Volvo EX30 is built on offering such solutions with its small size and condensed infotainment and user interface, and this is just a testament to its smart layout.
It’s a step in the right direction
Volvo’s design here is great because it recognizes a real problem with a simple, well considered solution. The big question is this – why haven’t we arrived at widespread Qi 2 charging yet, even outside of cars? It’s almost non-existent on the Android side of the fence (Samsung reveals pending, of course), and Qi 2 chargers are few and far between. In the automotive world, I can’t think of a single car that offers Qi 2-capable charging, with the magnetism capable of solving many of the outlined problems of this article.
The other benefit is obvious – charging speed. Most Qi 1 chargers have a 5W capacity (or up to 15W, depending on the specific devices in use), while the Qi 2 offers a 15W base capacity. These capacities are still far below fast charging with a USB-C cable, with most phones capable of going from 0-50% in just 30 minutes, while wireless chargers will struggle to deliver a comparably fast experience.
With the smartphone world now fully embracing the USB-C standard, I can’t help but imagine that the solution is simply better laid out connectivity. The problem with wireless phone chargers in cars goes in tandem with other issues connecting your car to your phone. Bluetooth-connected Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, for example, is finicky in many cars, and I’ve had to deal with dropouts in some. Some cars even demand the use of a USB-A cable to connect to wired Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, despite offering USB-C ports that are simply dedicated to charging.
These problems could be solved with a single solution; integrated mounts offering a USB-C plug, that you can simply slot your phone down onto. That way, there’s no ambiguity as to where your phone is meant to be placed and, if pulled off right, the phone won’t wiggle during movement.
Volvo’s approach in the EX30 feels like we’re heading the right way towards a more perfect solution for car-to-phone connectivity, especially with its intuitive operating system that fleshes out Android Auto into Android Automotive (the separate name for the onboard OS as opposed to the car-to-phone mode).
I’m looking forward to how Volvo innovates on the design in future models, as the company has pulled off some of my favourite in-car designs in recent memory.
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zac.kelly@futurenet.com (Zachariah Kelly)
