Let’s all just be honest about wireless chargers in cars: most of them suck. Yes, more recently they’ve gotten better, but for far too long they were complete hot garbage. You’d throw your phone onto the pad, the charge-indicator light would blink because your phone wasn’t perfectly placed, and once you broke out your surgeon’s gloves and tweezers to precisely place your phone exactly where it needed to be, you might get 10% charge over an hour.
During this era of horrible wireless chargers — an era I’m going to just say spans from 2015 to 2022, even though I’m mostly just pulling that out of my arse — two vehicles offered the very worst wireless charging experience: The BMW i3 and the Mini Cooper.
I know this because I own a fully-loaded (sans moonroof) BMW i3, and its wireless charger is a useless waste of space, and I cannot believe someone paid $600 for it. Allow me to explain.
It’s Located In The Armrest
I know we shouldn’t look at our phones while driving, and that a phone being in an armrest shouldn’t be a big deal since Apple Carplay projects the phone onto a screen. But let’s all just be real: Sometimes you want access to your phone when you’re in your car, and that’s especially true if you don’t have an iPhone.
See, the BMW i3 never came with Android Auto, so if you want to charge your Android phone wirelessly, but you want to use Google Maps to guide you somewhere (for example), you’re stuck having to listen to the guidance because that screen will be tucked away in that armrest. It’s a dumb place for a phone charger.
Most Phones Don’t Fit
The bigger issue is that the phone charger doesn’t even fit he majority of modern phones! Above is a Google Pixel 6 — not even the Pro, just the regular Pixel, which is a modest 6.2 inches tall and 2.9 inches wide:
And above is my wife’s iPhone 14, which is just 5.8 inches tall and 2.8 inches wide — it has a totally normal-sized case on it, and because of the case, her phone doesn’t fit the charger.
If you Have A Case, You Can Forget About It
It’s not even just the issue of length that makes charging impossible, it’s thickness. If you have any case — even my thin clear one shown here — the phone probably won’t charge. Mine does sometimes, but again, it has to be perfectly placed.
Maybe if I use a magsafe case it’ll be better, but all of my wireless chargers at home work totally fine with my existing case, and my i3’s just doesn’t.
The Phone Has To Be Perfectly Placed Or It Won’t Charge
Check out the video above and you’ll see what I’m dealing with. My iPhone 15 only fits because it has that thin clear case, and even with that, the phone charges intermittently.
When I’m using Carplay, I’ll see the lightning symbol on my battery, then it will go away, then I’ll see the lightning symbol, then it will disappear, then it comes back, then it’s gone, etc etc. It drives me crazy!
Even If The Phone Charges, It’s Slow And Gets Insanely Hot
See the vents on the side of the armrest? Those are there because a small fan provides ventilation for the phone on the charger. This fan adds an extra potential failure mode that I frankly don’t want, and also: It’s just not very good. If I even get my phone to charge, when I pick it up it is scalding hot.
It’s So Bad, People Just Delete It To Get The Tiny Cubby Back
Check out online forums, and you’ll see complaints all day about BMW i3 (and Mini Coopers, since they share numerous components) phone chargers. “Anyone remove the wireless charger from the armrests?” reads one Reddit post by a user named Sea-Presentation5686.
From that post:
I hate the wireless armrest charger for all the reasons, slow, too small, stupid location. I’ve since removed it and ordered the non-wireless rubber bottom piece but it doesn’t fit. Does anyone know what OEM parts or maybe they want to trade with me (in USA) for the wireless charger? I just want some storage space.
Man that person sounds frustrated, and I get it! Here’s what they want instead of their wireless charger — just a small empty armrest bin:
Yes, the wireless charger is so bad, this person would rather have a tiny storage bin. And it’s not just Sea-Presentation5686, it’s also a user named UrbanExtant, who was “bummed” to find out that their car came with a wireless charger:
“It’s been completely unusable,” writes UrbanExtant. “After the report that the wireless charger was frying iPhone 15 models, he stopped using it.” UrbanExtant goes on to ask questions about what it would take to remove the wireless charger. (For reference, this person is referencing an issue spelled out in “Apple says BMW wireless chargers really are messing with iPhone 15s” by The Verge).
Then there’s the Reddit thread titled “Has anyone found a solution to the wireless charger (armrest) not accommodating a larger phone without needing a 3D printer?” and there’s “Useless wireless charger” which reads:
Anyway i can remove this wireless charger in the center armrest and utilize the space instead? Do i have to completely swap out the armrest?
Plus there are plenty of threads on Mini forums:
The good news is that there is a solution, at least to the size issue. It turns out folks are 3-D printing little extenders that replace the original bracket. The downside is that 1. It’s not free and should have come with this from the factory and more importantly 2. It looks like a pain in the ass to install:
How BMW screwed up this wireless charger this badly — so badly that people are replacing it with a tiny storage bin — is beyond me.
