Just a heads up...on my recent 2.5 month Europe trip all cars rented had USB-C ports only. I unfortunately lacked a USB-C to lightning plug cable for charging my iPhone 12 so I ended up buying one while there. For travel I always bring a cigarette lighter “USB + Bluetooth receiver” plug, but even that was useless as half the cars rented lacked a cigarette lighter socket.
This applied to cars rented in France, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, and Slovakia.
On the advice of this forum, I brought a USB-A; USB-C and cigarette lighter adapter for our car rentals in France in April, but only needed/used the USB-C in our rental car. But one can never be too prepared, and I sure learned a lot about it from everyone here.
Thank you!
I posted about that once and everyone reassured me their cars all had usb plugs. LOL. I will do the flip, now, though. My recent cars this year in Ireland and Wales have had usb and cigarette lighter plugs.
Like KD, I now travel with ALL the possibilities if I am going to rent a car (plus my cell phone holder in case I get a car without a display). Because you just don’t know…..
This is the ultimate YMMV situation, since every car everywhere is going to be different. Be prepared for any type of connection or none at all, although I've never heard of a car that didn't have a ciggie outlet even if it was labelled as a power port or some such.
My friend's Volvo has one size of USB ports upfront and a different sized set for the back seat, go figure.
Also remember you might be able to do some Bluetooth streaming, but if your phone book gets imported into the car's ICE make sure you know how to delete it. I get rental cars all the time with other people's contact names and phone numbers still living in the dashboard.
USB-C is the EU's de facto standard for phone charging so it's not shocking that any recent model year car would prioritize the current standard over the deprecated USB-A standard.
Same thing with cig lighter... er, accessory plugs. With USB taking over, and USB-C being the standard, well.... there you are.
The last car I rented in the EU - last month, in France - had a wealth of USB-C ports and not a single USB-A or lighter socket. It is what it is - we're simply lagging behind here in the U.S.
Ah, the forever changing technology. I bought a new model phone with dual sim (card and e-sim) so I'm prepared for my next trip. The charging cable only had USB -C on each end. Until I buy a modern charging block I'm using my old charging cord with USB-C on one end and USB on the other end that connects to the transformer.
Need to update my packing list, and to be safe carry both chargers/cables. I won't be renting/driving cars in Europe..
We’ve had a rental VW T-Roc for a week and a half, and are turning it back in tomorrow at the Mulhouse/Colmar/Basel/Freiberg airport in Alsace, eastern France. In addition to USB ports in the dashboard, it has a panel in the console where the iPhone gets charged simply lying on the panel. Wireless charging!.
In Europe, I think you would be pressed to find a lightning port in any rental car. Maybe a USB A in older cars, but USB C for the most part.
Generally, what I have found in Europe is on the autos roads, etc., at the gas station auto Plaza whatever you want to call them somebody will be selling the right adapters. I just don’t sweat about it anymore. Figure out what I need and go buy no it if I need it.
We just rented a new hybrid SUV in Belfast and a few months ago a new regular SUV in Bilbao. Both did have cigarette lighters hidden in the armrest between the front seats.
Cigarette lighters? Heaven forbid!!! They are now called power ports. I’ve never seen a cigarette lighter in the power port for at least 20 years.
Rather than buying all new cords, you could get something like this:
or just buy the adapter tips on their own. That's what I did.
We both carry both USB C to USB adapters and vice versa. You can get the adapters on Amazon for sure.
I think you would be pressed to find a lightning port in any rental car.
I don’t think I have ever seen a lightning charging port. Hotels, airports, cafes or cars if they had them were all USB A. Often they were poorly maintained so not usable. So I carry a small power bank for emergency charging.
I have been changing over to USB C cables. I have some adapters but they are easy to lose.
The one drawback of using a USB-A to USB-C adapter is you lose the fast charging aspect of most modern smartphones.
And the Qi chargers (i.e. the "charging panel") on some cars is good for giving a phone power but it won't connect it to the infotainment system. For that you either need Bluetooth or the right USB port (only some ports in cars will connect to the onboard infotainment system).
This entire discussion captures my bemusement with charging cables perfectly. My bag of cables keeps expanding to accommodate the variety of requirements that my devices have. Wall warts, power banks, hubs, USB-A, USB-C, some old mini- and micro-USB ...
Maybe part of the problem is that my collection of devices is also growing.
