tl;dr: To build a car cradle, I glued a wireless Qi charger to a suction cup. It works really well. I glued a bluetooth audio adapter on top. Pics below.

DIY: My Nexus 4 Wireless Car Cradle

I own a Nexus 4. I love it.

It has wireless charging!

The problem is: there are no wireless chargers. Google posted pictures of a Nexus charging orb, but those .jpgs don't charge my Nexus.

After asking several stores and some googling I concluded:

there are some Qi chargers available that work with the Nexus:
- the Energizer Qi Charger
- the LG Electronics wireless charging pad WCP-700
- the Oregon Scientific bedside clock QW201
although they call themselves Qi, the Nokia Lumia wireless chargers don't seem to work (I'm still not sure)

I also concluded:

asking physical stores about this is a bad idea. "I don't know" would have been fine, but the advice I got is just ridiculous
I think I don't care anymore if internet shopping kills local retail

Philips Qi Charger

The best deal in Germany was the Philips Qi Charger for the iPhone 4. It seems no iPhone owner wanted one, so they are cheap on Amazon.

The Philips charger works great with the Nexus 4:

a blue LED on top indicates charging
it's not too bright, so it's not annoying during the night
the charger never beeps
charging is quick

I didn't measure charging times. What did you expect from someone too lazy to plug a charger to his phone?

My Favorite Car App #1: Google Maps Navigation

The problem is: there are no car cradles. Google didn't even post a picture of a Nexus car cradle, and well, even if they did, that .jpg probably wouldn't cradle my Nexus.

My Favorite Car App #2: Howard Stern Radio

The problem is: my car has no bluetooth. I would like to blame that on Google too, but can't find a way.

What's wireless charging worth if I still have to plug in the aux jack every time?

Building my Wireless Car Charger

Basically I glued the following parts on top of each other, using heavy duty mounting strips:

suction cup and ball joint (from my old Nexus S car mount)
the Philips charging plate
black elastic luggage straps
small rubber bumpers from the hardware store
a Belkin bluetooth audio adapter

The charging plate runs on 12V DC, so I could simply connect it to a cigarette lighter socket. I soldered:

12V cigarette lighter plug
spiral cable
3,0 mm power supply plug (fits the Philips plate, outside diameter 3,0 mm, inside 1,1 mm)

A triumph of laziness

It's no beauty, but it works great and eliminates a lot of hassle for me:

fastening the phone is quick
no plugs: charging is wireless and audio plays through bluetooth
I can answer calls pressing the big Belkin thing
the phone never fell off
I can remove the phone with one hand

Epilogue

I own a Nexus 4. I love it. I wouldn't trade it for an iPhone 5. Or I would, then sell it, buy a new Nexus 4 and make like $300.

Can anyone please build a better wireless car charging cradle for my Nexus 4? Kickstarter anyone?