New Ikea Wireless Charging Pad Will Add Wireless Charging To Almost Any Car
A lot of new cars are now coming with the feature of wireless charging, and while many of us with older cars may think this is a gimmick that we don’t need – me included – upon driving a few new press cars with the tech, it’s surprisingly useful.
Throw your phone down into the centre console and watch it magically light up and start charging. It’s that easy and takes no effort whatsoever. But what you save in the minuscule amount of time it takes to not plug your phone in, doesn’t make up for the amount of money it takes to actually buy a new car. Well, that’s until now.
Ikea’s new Sjömärke pad is a wireless charger they’ve built to enable charging through most plastics and wood of a certain thickness. In reality, it’s built for adding wireless charging to your desk, but this could easily be adapted to work in a car.
From Ikea, it plugs into the wall, but you could very easily splice the 6-foot power cable into your car’s power, maybe through the existing 12V charger, or simply taken from splicing into the fuse box. The pad, which allows for a charging distance of up to 8mm, can then be stuck under the interior plastics, giving you wireless charging in your older car for just $39.99.
Measuring in at only seven-inch by three-inch, it should be able to fit in most cars, and it monitors its own temperature and will power down if it gets too hot.
It will charge at around 5W with the latest Qi 1.2.4 baseline power profile and should be sold in Ikea in the US and other countries around October time.
