Mercedes has announced that the S550e plug-in hybrid (PHEV) luxury sedan that comes in 2018, features the Qualcomm Halo wireless charger manufactured by an unnamed Tier 1 power electronics supplier. BMW and a few others already announced that they are using Halo wireless charging. 

In a separate announcement,  Qualcomm shared with the world that it plans to enter a Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) license agreement with Lumen Australia, a  global supplier and integrator of electrical and electronic systems. If you add two and two together, there is a lot of sense in the notion that Lumen Australia will be behind  wireless charging in the Mercedes S550S plug-in hybrid car.

It seems that Halo wireless charging is doing fine with a number of different consumer vehicle platforms, including Renault Fluence, Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, BMW i8 and the Honda Accord.

There is no doubt that this will be a choice for many manufacturers in the years to come as it is very convenient and hassle free. All you need to do is to park over the charger spot and let the car change. There are no cables, and no strings attached.

Again, it is important to mention that Qualcomm bought NXP,  the company that acquired Freescale. Now the combined company has a good chance to offer an end to end solution in the car industry.

Qualcomm can provide Snapdragon 820A (A as an Automotive) Assisted driving platform, Snapdragon for the infotainment and the driver’s console, 4G+ Snapdragon X12 or X16 modem for connectivity and wireless charging.

A modern car has more SoCs and chips you can count, and it turns into a very complex super computer. Things will get even more complex in the future, but luckily, at the driver’s end, things will become nice, smooth and easy as all these computers and chips are designed to make your life easier and driving safer.