iPhone XR Wireless CarPlay power and charging requirements

[raylo32]

So I have used wired CarPlay with my XR for many years with a Pioneer NEX head unit and it would charge my XR pretty quickly and then keep it topped up even while running the wired CarPlay. I just got a 2023 Toyota Tundra that has wireless CarPlay and I installed a spare Anker 10W Qi charger in the vehicle connected by USB cable to what Toyota calls a fast charge port (these 2 ports charge only and do not do wired CarPlay). That same type of device charges the inactive XR in the house in a very reasonable time. But in the truck whilst running wireless CarPlay it barely holds it at whatever level I start with when playing music and running Google maps. Might even be draining.

Does wireless CarPlay really use that much power? Would going to a 15W Qi charger be sufficient? Assuming the truck USB A and C power ports can provide 15W. I need to find that spec.

 

[raylo32]

OK, I just looked it up and iPhones can take a max of 7.5W via Qi which is 0.625 amps. My USB A and C ports are 2.5 amps and 3.0 amps respectively which is up to 36W so that isn't the issue. I guess that 7.5W is just marginal to run wireless CarPlay. This is just lame, IMO. I wasted my time putting in that Qi charger since I'll have to use wired charging to keep the battery up.

 

[UKapple73]

my car doesn’t have wireless CarPlay so I bought a dongle which lets me use CarPlay wirelessly, works well but the drain in battery is hardly anything, maybe 4-5% per hour, so I can’t understand why the official wireless CarPlay would use so much power?? As far as I know, it uses normal 2.4ghz Wi-Fi to transmit the data

 

[raylo32]

I have a dongle like that in my other car that I only use for short drives since there is no wireless charger. So for any longer drive I use wired carplay. The dongle does Carplay the same as the built in vehicle or aftermarket head unit implementations so the drain should be similar. I'll try again... and maybe change the cable to my Qi out. but the indicator comes on now and phone says its charging.

 

[raylo32]

I may use this as an excuse to upgrade my XR to a 14 and make a new thing for my truck that holds a magsafe charger. IIIRC those can push 20W to an iPhone 14 so that should handle any potential drain. One would think.

Here is my current setup:

 

[raylo32]

Did a little better today, 2 hour drive running Carplay with google maps, but no music streaming, and the phone charged from 58% to 80%.