travelrex

I’ll be renting a car in Spain for 20 days. What type of phone charging is usually available in a typical car? I want to make sure I bring the right cords and anything needed.

ekscrunchy

There is no "typical" car.
This is probably a question you ought to ask of the rental agency.
Who are you renting from?
What type of car?

I have rented cars twice in Spain in the last two years.
Both cars came with those charging slots of different sizes. so I could easily plug in with various types of cords/cables.
And there is option of charging via lighter...
I always bring too many cables since I never know what I will need in hotels and cars but then, I am not savvy about this kind of thing as is probably most obvious for anyone reading this post!

If you forget something you can always buy it in Spain.

I always want a GPS in my rental car!

hetismij2

Usually a USB A in the car if any, so your normal cable should fit, or use a device from home in the cigarette lighter slot. Probably worth packing a lighter charger just in case the rental doesn't have USBs.

shelemm

I use the cigarette lighter charger regularly at home. All cars have this. Mine is a small cartridge with 2 USB-A females.

kja

I've rented cars in which the cigarette lighter was disabled and so was useless for charging anything. I take the lighter plug-in as a backup, but do not count on it.

janisj

This ^^^ Very few rental cars will have an operational cigarette lighter since the rental contract often prohibits smoking in the car.

travelrex

Thanks for the replies. I'll bring a small cigarette lighter charger, USB A and C cables.

starrs

That will cover it.

You may also want to bring a battery pack for back up and charge that in your hotel room.

travelrex

Yes I plan to bring a battery. Starting the day with a full charge and having a battery pack will cover me even if I can’t get the car to charge my phone. Always just nice to be able to charge while driving.

Traveler_Nick

When was this? No lighter was a thing in 2008 before the widespread use of GPS units and later smartphones. Now nobody calls it's a cigarette lighter anymore. It's an auxiliary power or some other useless term.

It's actually common for cars to have ports front and back today. This way the people in the rear seats can watch a video or something.

Many also have USB ports. The issue here is the port may not have enough power to fully charge a phone while in use. But it should be able to keep a phone from running down too much.

I'd suggest the OP brings a long cable 1 metre and a more normal 50 cm one. The long cable if he's using a windshield mount might be needed. You never know where the charging point is. The shorter cable would be fine if you're using the car screen to mirror the phone. Say Android auto or the apple equivalent.

ekscrunchy

Of course the cars have cigarette lighters, or whatever that outlet is called now.

Also remember to bring those things that you need to plug into the round-pronged wall outlets, so you can plug in your chargers...
Laptop, phone, electric toothbrush, maybe, etc....

shelemm

Nobody is a sweeping term and clearly does not take into account that I call it a cigarette lighter. But if I said "Auxiliary Power Supply" would everyone know what I'm talking about? The Art of Communication.

"Nobody pays full price anymore, why should you?"

kja

2012, in Turkey.

jeffhullinger3220

IME essentially every rental car nowadays, US and Europe, has USB ports for charging, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, etc. Sometimes USB-A, sometimes USB-C, sometimes both.

MalakiHebert

This is usually a standard USB cable (2.0 or 3.0, in general there is no difference here). Of course, not all cars have direct usb outputs, but all of them have cigarette lighters. You will just need to buy a cigarette lighter adapter with USB output, and voila, you have the opportunity to charge your phone in the car.

ekscrunchy

I spoke with two rental car agents in Spain on this current trip and they confirmed that all of their rentals have cigarette-lighter outlets (if not the actual lighter).