USB Power Delivery in various cars

[BijouMan]

Pretty much all technology companies have agreed that the USB-C connector and USB Power Delivery will be the standard connector and protocol to power a wide range of devices, including power-hungry laptop computers. This will allow you to only need to carry one charger and cable for all of your devices, and it makes using a power bank with your laptop just as easy as using one with your mobile phone. It officially supports up to 100W of power at 20V, and a recent revision to the specification has added Extended Power Range (EPR) which will allow 28V, 36V and 48V electricity translating to up to 140W, 180W and 240W respectively.

With all that being said, however, while all USB-C ports look exactly the same, you cannot simply plug your laptop into one and expect it to run off of that source. A USB Power Delivery source does not officially need to be capable of supplying the full 100W. More and more automakers have been putting USB-C ports into their vehicles, but sadly, it is not often clear as to how much electricity they are capable of supplying. Very little, if any, information exists online.

So, I will be finding out for myself how powerful each company's USB-C ports are. I recently bought Anker's new PowerCore 24K "737" power bank which is a full-spec source supplying the full 100W and it is also a 140W 28V EPR source. It can also supply variable voltage (PPS) across the entire spectrum (3.3V to 21V) at 5A. It can also draw up to 100W (normal) or 140W (EPR 28V) to charge itself, however, since it is merely a power bank and not a computer, it has no minimum power requirement to charge. This means that whatever wattage the source is is what the power bank will use.

The main reason I got it, though, is as well as being a full-spec source, it also has a digital display that shows how exactly much power your device is drawing from the power bank. When the power bank is charging, it shows how much power is going into its battery, which by the way consists of 6 cells connected as a series circuit, thus yielding a nominal voltage of about 21.6V. A percentage of the wattage is lost during the charging process and the power bank displays its charging wattage after this loss, so this needs to be taken into account when finding how powerful a source is. I have been connecting it to the USB-C ports in various cars from various companies. I will be adding to this list as I test out more. So, here is what I have found thus far:

Alfa Romeo: 45W
FCA (Uconnect 4): 12W (ports marked with battery symbol)
FCA (Uconnect 5): 15W (ports marked with battery symbol)
Ford: 7.5W (front), 12W (rear)
GM (ICE): 12W (ports marked with battery symbol)
GM (Ultium): 45W (console and rear), 30W (front)
Toyota: 12W