Charge Your Ebike Wirelessly? Yes, with the New Tiler Charging Station.

Smartphones, of course. Tablets too. Smartwatches and headphones. Even some game consoles. All these devices can be charged wirelessly. Electrical devices that typically draw the power they need to operate from an integrated battery. Just like an ebike. So that should mean that bikes with an electric drive can also be charged wirelessly, right? Yes, exactly, says a company from the Netherlands, which has developed a wireless charging station.

1. Charge the battery wirelessly and inductively via the bike stand
2. Tiler charging station: pros and cons
3. From university to practice
4. Solution soon available in Germany?

1. Charge your battery wirelessly and inductively via the bike stand

It looks a bit like a tile and is about the size of a paving stone – the charging station from Tiler. The Delft-based company has named its charging tile simply Tiler, after the English translation. It can be used to charge the battery of an ebike wirelessly. And it even works automatically.

Tiler’s solution includes the aforementioned charging station and a special side stand. You mount this on your ebike. This means that you may have to remove the existing stand first. The power flows to the battery via the stand. A corresponding adapter cable connects the two. Depending on the type of battery you have, you can add the adapter cable to the ebike’s wiring harness, attach it neatly to the frame or plug it into an external charging port.

The charging tile must, of course, be connected to the mains in some way. To do this, simply connect it to a standard household socket with a 230-volt, 16-amp connection. To charge the battery inductively, just park the ebike so that the stand is in the specially marked area on the tile. Five LEDs on the left side of the tile will light up when charging begins. The number of LEDs lit indicates the charging progress. Incidentally, a household socket can supply up to 24 charging tiles with power while they are charging at full capacity. Since several tiles can be connected to form a larger unit, this would also be an option for the whole family. 😊

2. Tiler charging station: pros and cons

A major advantage of wireless charging with a Tiler station is that you can leave the battery in or on your ebike at all times. This reduces the risk of accidentally dropping and damaging the battery when removing it from the bike or inserting it. Such incidents can cause the battery to catch fire later on. What’s more, you don’t need to fetch a charger from the cupboard or another location and plug it in. Instead, you simply park your ebike and charging begins immediately. This works just as quickly as with a conventional charger. In its own tests, Tiler fully charged an empty battery with a capacity of 500 watt hours within 3.5 hours.

Nevertheless, there are a few limitations. The biggest one is that not everyone can easily place such a charging tile where they usually charge or simply park their ebike. This is closely followed by the need for a bike stand. Some of us simply don’t want one on their ebike. And some ebikes cannot be fitted with one. Furthermore, the information provided by Tiler does not indicate whether the charging process stops automatically once the battery has reached 100 per cent charge. If not, you would have to keep an eye on the time and disconnect the ebike from the charging station in good time. Last but not least, the question arises as to what happens to the now superfluous charger.

Tiler wireless charging station at a glance

• Charging power: 150 W
• Charging time: 3.5 hours for a 500 Wh battery
• Dimensions: 260 mm x 245 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 2 kg
• Protection rating: IP67

3. From university to practice

Apart from that, however, the system appears to be very mature. The technology was developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at Delft University of Technology. The first generation of the Tiler was developed back in 2016. Compared to this, the latest version features many improvements. The tile is thinner and no longer needs to be firmly anchored to the ground. Previously, the charging process required additional cables. Today, the manufacturer can install better power electronics, making the system compatible with more ebike systems than before. In addition, manufacturing costs have fallen, so that the retail price is now only 250 euros instead of 800 euros.

With its solution, the company had primarily focused on larger companies and bike-sharing providers. However, Tiler is currently reorienting itself and is now also targeting private customers. This is simply because the vast majority of ebikes in the Netherlands are used privately. Consequently, this market offers significantly greater economic potential.

4. Solution soon available in Germany?

Tiler currently manufactures two different products – Tiler Compact and Tiler Cube. The first one is the actual charging station. Tiler Cube is a compact charger that has been specially developed for cargo bikes. It can be mounted on a solid two-leg stand on an electric cargo bike. The manufacturer quotes a price of 250 euros for the charging tile including the stand. The stand will also be available for purchase separately. This means you can use one charging station for several ebikes. However, we do not know the price for this or for Tiler Cube.

This could change soon. However, Tiler’s crowdfunding campaign currently running on CrowdCube needs to be successful for this to happen. The company wants to raise money to finance the market launch of the new system in 2026. According to the company, the product still needs to be certified in order to receive the CE mark. Additional funding comes from a research grant awarded to the start-up. Besides that, Tiler says it’s talking to investors and production partners to shape further development. One of the goals is to locate future production mainly in Europe. The market launch in the Netherlands is scheduled for next year. The manufacturer would then like to expand its business to Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Plans for the installation of larger charging areas, preferably in public spaces, are also still on the table.

An important final note for anyone who is now interested: Currently, you can use the charging solution on ebikes with drives from Bosch, Bafang, Gobao, Yamaha and Zehus, among others. You can find out more about other compatible brands directly from Tiler.

Pictures: Tiler B.V.