Most modern cars don’t charge phones well
One consistent theme with modern cars these days is that, while many now have a wireless charging pad, few of them work reliably. The 2025 Hyundai Tucson changes that with a pad that holds your phone in place and actually works.
A little backstory here: In many makes and models, you place your phone onto the pad and, if it isn’t positioned just right, you will find the device isn’t actually charging. Because driving a car is a bit different from sitting in your kitchen sipping coffee, the car is constantly jostling things around, and your phone will likely move out of position.
Worse, charging pads are positioned for security, hidden in a compartment under the radio console. This doesn’t make sense, because most of us don’t leave our phones in that little slot when we leave the car — we take our phones with us.
Also, there is barely any indication that the phone is charging. Yes, if you use Apple CarPlay, you can see the tiny charge icon appear when it is receiving power. It’s easy to miss and not everyone uses CarPlay. There is often a tiny light that shows whether their phone is sitting just so to charge but it is hard to see and keep track of.
And guess what? Driving is not a situation where everything is always consistent and your view of the world never changes. It can be dark at night, shadows from cloud coverage making everything look dim and hard to see. In bright sunlight, you can’t see a tiny light hidden in an alcove that an engineer thought would be a smart idea for security reasons.
The 2025 Hyundai Tucson improves car phone charging
The 2025 Hyundai Tucson fixes all of that. For starters, there’s no reason to put a charging pad in an alcove in a car because we’re all glued to the plastic gizmos all day. We don’t leave them in our cars anymore than we would leave an arm or a leg. Why the compartment would be hidden or obfuscated makes no sense. Put the charging pad in a place that is as easy as possible to find and use. Which is exactly what Hyundai decided to do.
The charging pad is right next to your right hip. It could not be easier to find. It’s large enough for the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max I’ve been testing lately, and I’m sure it also accommodates most Samsung and Google models. You drop the phone into the slot and it stays nice and secure. Many wireless charging pads these days are made of a harder plastic so the phone can jostle.
This is more of a problem than you might think. Again, we use these things all day. In some makes and models, I put my phone into the cubby hole and thought it was charging, only to discover the hard way that my phone was dead. I’ve even missed important emails and texts because of this problem.
On the 2025 Hyundai Tucson, it was never an issue. The rubber material makes the phone stick a little in place and doesn’t move around. Once it’s charging, it stays charging. Also, there are three big green lights that show charge status. As your phone charges, you see one, two and three lights to show it is fully charged. That’s brilliant and intuitive.
For me, the 2025 Hyundai Tucson Limited AWD Hybrid was great because it made my phone a priority. I would even buy the car partly because of the phone charger.