Lexus called me back again for a follow up. They said they do not have an update to the wireless charger. I told them this is a well-known issue, but they said not many people, if at all, have formally reported it to them. They said if enough people report, their engineers will offer an update.

 

Here in Canada.
I've been communicating over the last few weeks with a service advisor at my dealer to let them know that the recent replacement charger was just as bad as the previous one and I'd like to move to the updated one. In talking with the service manager she stated that since this is a warranty repair they are only allowed to order a part that technically matches with the car's VIN in order for everything to get approval. But after my response to still not being satisfied and the availability of a newer design she said the service manager would go back to Lexus and make my case with them. With that I said, well I'll call Customer Care and put in a new case file too, so hopefully that'll help.

I called Lexus Customer Care just yesterday (Aug 5, '25) to have a case created as well. My person I spoke with mentioned that she has a code to use at her disposal that would allow my case file to be shared with my dealer's Service Manager. She 'looked him up' in the system as well so to make sure it went to correct manager. Anyways, I took the time to let her know all the backstory with this, that the newest design found in the '25 MY appears to work much better, a few owners have had them replaced (mind you I think they're in USA). My point I made was simply that if the old design worked fine there would naturally be no need to 'improve it'. There's tremendous cost to make a rolling change on a car's design for any aspect. So clearly there was a need for it, they have just chosen to financially not pursue any TSB for it as the issue isn't that serious, it's simply a poorly designed wireless charger that barely does the job.

I also mentioned to dealer and customer service, "Don't blame the issue on the phone case, who in their right mind wouldn't put a protective case on $1,200 worth of tech. We have an XR and 15 Plus both are very common phones in the market and should have been used in testing out the capability of the charger. I have 3 other wireless chargers in my home and all of them never give me any problems."

Let's hope our concerted effort with Lexus will payoff.

 

Just finished a call from Lexus Customer Service concerning my wireless charger. I had put in another Customer Service complaint for the charge tray to be upgraded. I explained I supplied a photo of new design in an older model, proof is the connection ports show old USB A and one USB C. Explained new design works better so why not offer it. Case Manager said she reached out to their team of design engineers and they said it's not compatible for my vin.

Only possible concern I can think of is that most likely the new design will draw more current since it's improved charging ability would likely be achieved with more output capability and they don't want to chance tripping the circuit it's on. So the updated charger tray found in '25 MY may have other items upgraded within the circuit to keep things working as they should. Just my 2 cents, I don't know for sure.
What I do know is if you can get Lexus to authorize it, consider yourself lucky!

 

Do you use a phone case?

 

Are you going there? Many ppl use a phone case. I personally use an extremely thin case and it still does not charge. I took out the Pixel 9 Pro XL case and put it on the charger and it charge, but only when I'm not driving. Once I drive the phone just keeps on sliding and it can't charge because the silicone pad just doesn't hold the phone in one place. Plus.... Won't it be a hassle to remove the case everytime I need to change in the car and I don't when I charge on other wireless chargers?

 

My 23 350h has no issues charging mine and my wife's Samsung S23s, both in Otterbox commuter cases. Yes, they slide around a bit when cornering, but the charging resumes automatically when the movement stops. I can hear a sound, similar to a CD changer changing discs (dating myself), when the phone moves about, but it always returns to charging.

 

Those darn sports cars, phone and everything slides around when cornering, but hey it's a "sports car" and that is one of the things you have to expect in a "sports car"

YMMV,
MidCow3

 

I have found similar. Often by the time the little message pops up on the screen saying that charging has stopped, I can already see by the charger status light that charging has already resumed.

 

Just to get a little more detail into this thread I thought I would ask some more specific questions from all. I have an older iPhone XR, my wife a 15 Plus. Cases off for both, I get a stop charge back to green light after a few minutes, I move phone around and it will start back up for another few minutes. At best, I will see nothing more than a steady state of charge on our phones. So if I drop it down on the cradle at 87% over a half to 3/4 hour later its at 87% still, the phone is very warm too! I had an opportunity a few weeks back where I needed to wait in car for several hours not driving but sitting in a parking lot. I had plugged in my phone prior to, and was at 90%. It sat on cradle maintaining the charge, but after an hour it started to crap out and notify me on phone that it was too hot and charging will resume once temperature reduced. This is just a terrible design at least when looking at it from a compatibility with iPhones.

Does anyone see a better result with Android phones? I'm curious if the phone design itself is feeble and partly to blame. I mean it should work as the name implies, a phone charger, not a maintainer. Of note we have 3 wireless chargers in our home and use them constantly with no problems at all.

 

I can say that iPhone 14, 15 and 16 works on my charger with a case (after the replacement). Android (Pixel 8, and 9) do not work with the wireless charger with a case.

 

Galaxy S10+, its also quite old now (5 or 6 yrs, don't quite remember now), a work phone that I will eventually replace with a new personal phone when I retire in the coming months. I have the requisite countdown widget on my home screen, LOL. Battery life is pretty bad now, only good for barely 8 hrs of light to moderate use but it still works very well otherwise and I'm usually close to a charger. I can still take it down to 1% charge with the degraded battery without the phone restarting on me due to fluctuating flow out of the battery (which I've seen at times on other older phones with degraded batteries going much below 30%).

In any case, I left work with 11% battery, put in on my NX charger, Android auto connected, Google Maps actively showing my baby on the map (but not actively navigating) so most of the radios operating and processor cores not idling, and also Spotify in split screen playing some tunes. Home 23 minutes later with a 15% charge. So I'm still on the plus side of the equation most of the time. I have a very basic thin case on it, nothing that would withstand a building falling on it, might survive a dropped sandwich.

 

I'm guessing the Qi 'chi' wireless charging designs varies from phone to phone. I mean design teams have to consider how much everything is sucking up power from the battery, which is restricted by a space limitation of phone dimensions and must ultimately apportion out space for every component they put in it. And power draw creates thermal issues which electronics really doesn't like. My phones work fine on home chargers but the charger had no constraints on limits for space or heat generation, mine have built in cooling fans, my phone doesn't obviously.

 

Stumbled upon this Toyota issue with wireless chargers not working very well. Sounds very similar to our issues on '22-'24 NX