ELi5: Why do cars have a cigarette lighter charging port rather than a standard electrical outlet?
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A couple reasons.
First, history. Smoking used to be WAY more popular, and cigarette lighter ports would work by providing an electric current to a coil of wire to heat it up. As portable electronics started skyrocketing in availability and popularity, companies would create adapters that would fit into these slots to provide power to electronics. As smoking became less and less popular and the actual cigarette lighters went away, car manufacturers kept the ports since so many people had devices that used the ports.
Second, a car’s electrical system provides a limited amount of DC power. Anything using a standard electrical outlet will be AC power, so you must convert it. Which some more modern vehicles do, and provide standard electrical outlets. Additionally, most cars electrical system will output 120W MAX to the outlets, so there’s a danger that people will start plugging in devices that draw too much current and either drain the battery even though the car’s running, or blow a fuse. This isn’t a danger with cigarette lighter accessories since they were specifically designed for car use and power requirements.
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