When the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric crossover launched, Hyundai forgot one thing: a rear wiper. Understandably, given the vehicle’s hatchback-like form, this proved to be a bit of a problem, as turbulence behind the vehicle frequently deposited grime on the rear glass, particularly during wintry months, with no way to clean off said grime while on the go. While Hyundai has rectified this with the Ioniq 5 N and the upcoming 2025 Ioniq 5, that still leaves tens of thousands of owners in search of a rearward visibility solution.
Obviously, the most comprehensive solution is to figure out a way to retrofit all the wiper parts and the rear glass from the 2025 model year car onto prior models, but since that’ll be a seriously expensive endeavor, owners are looking for a Band-Aid. Well, here it is, at least in Kickstarter form.
Called the GeckoWiper, it’s the brainchild of Zurich-based inventor and Hyundai Ioniq 5 driver Robert Bleischwitz. It’s a detachable, battery-powered rear wiper being launched through Kickstarter starting at around $365. Despite the price, demand is so strong that ordinary people have pledged more than 400 percent of what its creator has actually asked for. While it won’t do everything a traditional rear wiper setup will do — there’s no washer mechanism, for example — it promises to quickly clear the rear glass on demand.
So, how does it hold onto the glass? Well, it uses a combination of vacuum and magnetism. See, a suction cup on the back of the external unit sticks the wiper to the glass while a big magnet on the other side of the glass keeps it held down. I’ve got a phone mount that works on a similar principle and find that it can keep a cell phone in place at racetrack pace, so this seems like a plausible way of holding something weighing 2.2 pounds to a rear window.
Better yet, activation seems pretty simple. A little remote magnetically sticks to a factory-installed panel to the left of the gauge cluster on any Ioniq 5, and you just tap that button twice or for two seconds to get two quick wipes. That’s nearly as good as a dashboard-mounted switch, and it doesn’t require any wiring or disassembly to install.
With 180 degrees of sweep, the creators of the GeckoWiper believe it can be made to work with a variety of cars that lack rear wipers. The Tesla Model Y and Model 3, Kia EV6, and Polestar 2 are examples already cited, but theoretically, given the right wiper tension and sweep, you could put this on just about anything. Kia Stinger or Audi A7, anyone?
The GeckoWiper appears to be an interesting workaround, but a few questions linger that aren’t answered by the Kickstarter page. To start, how long does the battery last? The creators of the GeckoWiper claim a standby time of up to six months, but how much time of active wiping do you actually get out of a charge if you’re, say, frequently clearing snow with the wiper? Furthermore, will people remember to charge their wipers? That’s an insane sentence and yet a valid concern. Even if you’re used to plugging in your car every night, you probably aren’t used to plugging in your rear wiper periodically, so that’ll certainly be an adjustment. Finally, what happens if someone tries to steal it, or it gets hit? Will it break away, will it crack the rear glass, what’s the move?
At first glance, the GeckoWiper doesn’t seem perfect, but it does look promising and potentially useful. At the end of the day, that might be all it needs to be. Of course, this all comes with an asterisk as customer deliveries aren’t expected to start until February 2025, but this seems like a Kickstarter worth watching.
(Photo credits: GeckoWiper)
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I have to drive in the rain a lot, and I always tell myself that my next car will have a rear wiper, and yet I’ve never owned a car with one. The only thing I miss about my Kia Forte is that it had a really powerful rear defroster, which kept that glass pretty dry by itself. But honest to god, my NEXT car will have a rear wiper…
So will this save you 15% or more on car insurance?
My ev6 is my first car without a rear wiper since my 91 cavalier Z24 I had in the late 90s.
I was worried at first but so far so good, haven’t seen winter yet. But i doubt those would handle our long and cold snowy winters. So i will not be buying one of these wipers.
If you were ordering a new car and they wanted $365 for a rear wiper, most people would say, “No, thanks.” I do admire the initiative, though.
There’s a review by The Ioniq Guy on youtube, though it’s a prototype, not the production model.
I saw that last night. As annoyed as I am about my Ioniq 5 not having a rear wiper, I’m not sure I want to pay $400 to be an early adopter. Might wait for gen 2 and keep my glass cleaner and cleaning cloths in the trunk.
I drive a sedan with no rear wiper. I live in the Midwest with a full 4 seasons. I really never cared about not having one, and I honestly have no idea why it’s useful.
What am I missing?
For sedans it’s a bit different because the rear window slopes enough that the rain gets pushed off. For cars with more vertical rear glass (hatchbacks, wagons, etc) the rain stays on the window and causes trouble for rear viability.
That’s precisely because you drive a sedan. The back of the car picks up a lot of dirt and grime splashed up by the rear tires.
On a sedan that just ends up on the trunk lid, but on cars with a vertical rear hatch it will also end up on the window.
That’s why rear wipers are very common on hatchbacks, wagons, suvs, and vans but rarely come on sedans.
Thanks!
This answers why sedans DON’T have wipers. I’m wondering why any cars DO?
How often do people drive looking backwards? And how much fidelity do you need?
As long as you can see that there is an object/headlights behind you, isn’t that enough?
When backing up in a parking lot, fidelity helps, but the window is only one small area, and by the time something is visible there, you should have noticed the car/pedestrian sooner. Besides, most cars have cameras anyway.
If the argument is that we need wipers to see, then we should have wipers on the side windows too. Maybe on the side mirrors as well, and definitely on the reverse camera.
/Old man yelling at clouds
They should market this to folks with sedans/coupes.
One of the reasons I first started looking at wagons was because I hated having snow, rain, and debris accumulate on the back windshield with no way to remove it while driving beyond the defroster (though there have been some sedans and notchbacks and such with them available, usually in Asia/Pacific markets).
I would have paid for this years ago when I still had a sedan. But need some real-world tests of the magnet (I have zero trust with any vacuum-based system).
Probably nice for people who have to deal with real weather. Living in California the lack of a wiper on my ioniq 5 isn’t much of an issue.
I haven’t taken mine through winter yet, but I haven’t noticed the lack of rear wiper as a problem. I guess if there’s something I need to see, I can bring up the rear camera on the screen.
Providing it doesn’t shift under torque, it seems a good idea for when it rains. If the window is collecting dirt and dry, though, without a washer, using this thing is a good way to scratch the glass.
If this will work for a ’23 Integra, I’ll gladly throw my money at it!
@David: The answer to dead, missing, broken early CJ front wipers?
And people who remove them to clean up the look of their hot rod or whatever.
Maybe Derek and/or the Roadkill boys can get behind this?
Why not an induction charger that will charge the battery through the glass?
This is awesome! Every car that’s not a convertible should come with a rear wiper
I was looking for something just like this for my Volt. Big ol’ rear window with no wiper.
What I notice having a camera instead of a mirror to look back, I don’t use the rear wiper anymore. The camera stays clean most of the time and it has its own nozzle to clean it.
There’s another unusual use case for something like this. There was a lemons race once held in monsoon conditions, and nothing we tried could keep the windshield from fogging up. Genius teammate went to autozone, bought a rear wiper assembly from a trailblazer, and rigged it up on the inside just behind the rear view mirror. It looked super weird from the outside to see two sets of wipers going in opposite directions, but it was extremely effective.
Wait, did this guy just read about the cyber truck lights?
Its definitely clever enough and easy enough to install to find a place in the automotive world. Jegs and Summit will copy it and sell it as an addon for vintage vehicles.
Would it be possible to charge via induction through the glass? Doesn’t need to supply full juice, just trickle charge when not in use.
This is an annoyance on my Ioniq hybrid, the upper trim levels had rear wipers, but not the lower ones (they include a reminder of your cheapness, as when the windshield wipers are turned on, you get a “front wiper” notification on the screen regardless of whether there’s one on the back or not). That rear window gets really filthy real fast, something about the car’s shape just sweeps the grime onto it
Or have the motor and power on the inside, and have magnets transmit the torque to the wiper – like those fish tank cleaners.
Brilliant.
Automakers should feel bad about this. But they won’t, this’ll be our new normal.
I mean, they clearly felt bad enough about it to put it into the 2025 model refresh.
I can see this being a way to add front wipers onto a racecar that doesn’t have them. Too pricey for a Lemons-caliber car but the concept is sound if they can bring the price down.
This would be a KILLER product for all the Drag & Drive events. What’s a $400 wiper on your half million dollar “street legal” ProMod?
Or a quickie fix to get any car with broken/inoperable wipers through a state inspection
Wouldn’t it get a pass as safety equipment?
edit: they’ll be on Temu for like $50 in a few months
Definitely, it wouldn’t count against the budget, but it’s still pricey considering I bought my entire Lemons car (bone stock) for $400.
This is awesome. I could put it on my ’98 Civic coupe!