Charging

With iPhones using Lightning ports, Android phones (and iPad Pros) using USB-C, laptops using a mixture of USB-A and USB-C, and chargers covering just about every base, getting your mobile devices juiced up can be a hassle. Enter the 5-in-1 charging cable, High Five.

​In order to make electric cars more appealing to consumers, automakers have been experimenting with robotic chargers that automatically plug themselves into specific cars such as Volkswagens or Teslas. A new system, however, is designed to work with a wide variety of electric vehicles.

Researchers have found that materials known as niobium tungsten oxides form microscopic structures that let lithium ions flow through them at much greater rates than current technology allows. The finding could be the key to building safe lithium-ion cells that charge in minutes rather than hours.

The River Bank is a modular powerbank designed to provide power to a range of devices, including phones, laptops ... or cars. The company also says it's the largest portable charging system that you'll be able to legally fly with.

For those who charge their electric cars at home, off street parking is pretty much essential. But that's changing. Ubitricity has been installing charging points in streetlamps for a few years now, and now London, UK, startup Urban Electric is about to trial a pop-up charge point in Oxford.​

Swiss company ABB has launched its Terra High Power DC fast charger, which can put out an impressive 350 kilowatts, charging at nearly three times the rate of Tesla's Superchargers. It'll enable super fast car charging – but only once cars are ready to handle it.

​At the end of a fun afternoon on fast bikes, we sat down again with motorcycling legend "Electric Terry" Hershner to finish our chat about the first electric Ironbutt, the Vetter Challenge, riding with his manic dog Charger and a future in which two-way EV charging can support the power grid.

We’ve cut the cord for communication, thanks to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but charging our little pocket supercomputers still takes a tether. Now a team from the University of Washington has demonstrated how lasers could be used to charge a device from across the room.

​Although charging points are becoming more commonplace all the time, buying an electric vehicle still brings some uncertainty. Tesla is removing some of the guesswork for prospective buyers, bringing a useful new trip-planning tool online to help you map out potential routes. ​

Before it can be truly useful, wireless charging technology needs to transmit power across a room. Energous is developing technology that can do just that, and now the FCC has granted approval for the WattUp Mid Field transmitter, which can charge devices from several feet away.

Continental AG has today announced that it will be bringing its induction charging pads for EVs along to CES next month, along with a new onboard charging system promised to give owners greater flexibility.

With the news that Apple's latest iPhones are going to support wireless charging, the tech is back in the spotlight, but it still has its limitations. Pi promises mat-free top ups within range of the cone-shaped wireless charging station, and support for juicing up multiple devices at once.