Tesla's Wild Robotic Charging Arm Never Happened. Xiaomi Just Made It Reality

Forgot to plug in your EV at home? Xiaomi’s latest product takes care of it, even if you’re away.

Xiaomi Robotic Charging Arm

Photo by: Xiaomi Auto

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jun 15, at 7:07am ET

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Xiaomi, which is mostly known for its smartphones and smart home appliances, unveiled a new EV charging product.
The robotic charging arm unfolds from a slim enclosure, automatically plugging into a parked EV.
Tesla presented a similar solution a decade ago, but it never materialized. Meanwhile, Xiaomi’s robot will go on sale by the end of this year.

Xiaomi, which took the Chinese car market by storm with its fast and sleek electric vehicles, just presented a modern version of the flexible EV charging robot showcased by Tesla a decade ago.

But while Tesla’s robotic arm never made it into production, with the American company shifting its focus to wireless charging for the upcoming Cybercab, Xiaomi’s autonomous charging robot is expected to hit stores in the fourth quarter of this year, according to CarNewsChina.

The Chinese company’s charging robot comes in a slim enclosure that’s less than six inches (152 millimeters) wide, making it ideal even for tight garages or public parking spaces. According to its maker, the multi-segment robot seamlessly integrates into the company’s smart home ecosystem—like an internet-connected air fryer or a smart vacuum cleaner.

Three features define Xiaomi’s new robot. It can automatically initiate the charging session after the car is parked without input from the owner. It can also automatically unplug from the car when the battery's state of charge reaches the set level. Lastly, owners can initiate a charging session remotely, which can come in handy when they forget to plug in but don’t quite feel like walking back to the garage.

In a sub-one-minute video presentation, Xiaomi claims the robotic arm uses artificial intelligence vision recognition for sub-millimeter precision when plugging in. The automated charging robot can also communicate directly with the car to open or close the motorized charge port door.

It’s quite impressive, but there are still a couple of questions that don’t have answers. First, Xiaomi didn’t say how much the sleek new charging robot would cost, and second, we don’t know if the enclosure includes the charger itself or if this is an extension of a home charger that has already been installed.

What do you think?

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The company already makes a few home chargers, with power outputs ranging from 7 kilowatts to 11 kilowatts, so I expect the automated charging arm to be an all-in-one solution. More details are expected to spill over as the product’s market launch in the fourth quarter gets closer.

Xiaomi doing what Tesla never finished is pretty cool, but it’s not the only company out there that’s exploring the idea of a robotic charging arm—Hyundai and Star Charge already have similar solutions.

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