Charging MacBook Pro in the car

You could. I've tried all sorts of things and even a 5V/1A USB-A power adapter will supply power to a 14" M1 MacBook Pro or a 2019 MacBook Air. But that's only supplying 5W. Many might provide 2-3 A so that would be more. It's not ideal, but it should work to some degree.

You can check in System Report to see what it's reporting for input power.

HWTech wrote:

While investigating this for a co-worker, about the only good option is a cigarette lighter adapter from Satechi. While there may be lots of options on Amazon, I would be hesitant to trust them. At least Satechi has been around for years.

https://satechi.net/products/72w-type-c-pd-car-charger-adapter?variant=29681251582040

Normally I would also suggest OWC, but the OWC car charger was not as nice in my opinion.

I have a 100W inverter somewhere. Cost me $20 and is has a separate lighter plug attachment cable that goes with a playing card deck sized inverter. It buzzed like crazy and I've heard that the AC output of these things is often not close to a pure sine wave. That with a higher power adapter might work.

muguy wrote:

It’s unlikely that the usb port in your car will charge a laptop.

Depends on what's meant by "charge". I think it would probably provide about 10W through a USB-A to USB-C cable. Enough to slow down the battery drain. Might even be able to charge (painfully) slowly over many hours if not being actively used. But I've tried lower power USB power sources on different Macs, and it does actually provide power.

While investigating this for a co-worker, about the only good option is a cigarette lighter adapter from Satechi. While there may be lots of options on Amazon, I would be hesitant to trust them. At least Satechi has been around for years.

https://satechi.net/products/72w-type-c-pd-car-charger-adapter?variant=29681251582040

Normally I would also suggest OWC, but the OWC car charger was not as nice in my opinion.

Hi,

I think you can, though you'd better use USB A male to USB-C male cable, rather than USB-A to USB-C adapter.

https://www.amazon.com/LOKEKE-USB-Type-Power-Cable/dp/B0B4DGKDHH/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=91KD2OOV8KC0&keywords=USB-A+male+to+USB-C+male+cable&qid=1681293701&s=computers-intl-ship&sprefix=usb-a+male+to+usb-c+male+cable%2Ccomputers-intl-ship%2C219&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyUDBHWU9FUTlOWlBYJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTMzMDkzMjhBOFI2REtVRzhGUyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODI4NTI2M1ZRU0VXU005NVlWMiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

It’s unlikely that the usb port in your car will charge a laptop.