I gave my car a USB-C PD port for cheap, and it fixed my phone's battery problem

Published Sep 18, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT João has been covering the tech world for over 7 years, with a heavy focus on laptops and the Windows ecosystem. I also love all things tech and videogames, especially Nintendo, which he's always happy to talk about. Prior to joining XDA in 2021, he worked at Neowin: https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/jo%C3%A3o-carrasqueira/ I got my current car a couple of years ago, but it was already a fairly old model then, being from 2014. But it's the first car I've had that has a USB port, and when I first saw that, I figured I'd never have to worry about keeping my phone charged on trips again. As it turned out, though, this port wasn't suitable for charging at all, but thankfully, it was easy to fix. Thanks to the 12V port on the car, I now have a USB-C charger in my car at all times, and it works exactly how I'd expect it to. In-car USB ports are usually bad Especially this early on Credit: USB ports in cars can often be pretty bad, and that's only compounded when we're talking about something from 2014. The USB Type-A port in my car is basically completely incapable of charging a phone. It's only there to power the music player if I want to use local files, or to install software updates for the in-car display. The first time I got into the car for a long drive, I plugged in my phone for a long time, only to realize the battery was still draining pretty fast. From talking with people who have more modern cars, I know they can charge better, but that doesn't mean they're great. XDA's Content Director Rich Woods even said he wouldn't buy a car unless the specs outlined the charging capabilities of the USB ports, because if manufacturers aren't mentioning it, there's a good chance it just charges too slowly, and if you're using Android Auto with your phone, it may end up not getting much of a charge at the end of the trip. That's where the 12V port inside my car came to the rescue. A 12V adapter changed everything Now everything charges as it should For as long as I can remember, cars have come with a port that's prime for charging your phone. It's the 12V port, and though it was originally designed to power a small lighter built into the car, adapters have always turned that port into a phone charger. We used to call them "cigarette lighter chargers." These days, it seems like these ports don't include the lighter anymore, but they're still just as good for charging, so that's what I did. I recently bought a kit that included both a phone holder and a 12V charging adapter, and that has solved all my woes. Granted, this specific charger is actually still only rated for 15W out of the USB-C port (5V and 3A), but that's still a massive step up from not being charged at all, and on all my trips driving around, it always charges my phone faster than the battery drains from using Google Maps the whole time. I've never had to worry about my phone dying on one of these trips, even if I didn't charge it overnight. Plus, you can definitely find more powerful chargers; I just went very cheap with this one, and I didn't even do any research. I just happened to find this at a store, so it's far from the best option out there. On Amazon, you can find the Anker 323 car charging adapter that can deliver up to 30W over a single USB-C port, and it still costs less than $20. It's a pretty sweet upgrade. Of course, if you're also interested in using Android Auto, and it needs a wired connection, that may be a problem here. You can add wireless Android Auto with a dedicated adapter if you need it, though that will add a bit to your spending. You could always go for an inverter If you need more power If you need even more power, there's one particular kind of adapter you can get. It's called an inverter, and it allows you to get way more power out of this simple 12V port. These devices usually give you proper outlets with even more wattage, so you can plug in a proper wall charger and juice up your phone or laptop much faster. Admittedly, I haven't tried this, especially since these devices tend to be much more expensive, but if you want to charge multiple devices faster, that's probably the way to go. My colleague at XDA Dhruv Bhutani tried this, and it worked quite well for him. A cheap adapter goes a long way It was certainly disappointing to see the USB port in my car, only to later realize it wasn't useful for what I was most interested in, but fixing this problem is frankly very easy. Almost every car has a 12V port, and it's rarely used for anything else, so you might as well leave a cheap charger in there to make sure your phone can be fully charged during your trip. Anker 323 compact car charger This compact charging adapter for your car can output 30W out of its USB_C port, making it more than capable of charging any smartphone quickly.