My aging minivan needs Anker’s leaked car charger with a retractable USB-C cable - The Verge

By Andrew Liszewski, a senior reporter who's been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2011, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid.

A reliable leaker has shared details and an image of an unannounced car charger from Anker that would be the first from the company to feature a retractable USB-C cable. As the proud owner of an eight-year-old minivan lacking modern amenities like built-in USB ports, this would be a welcome alternative to a glove box stuffed full of unraveled charging cables.

The new Anker Nano car charger, which plugs into a vehicle’s auxiliary power outlet, will reportedly deliver up to 75W of power shared between a 30W USB-C port, and a 45W retractable cable with a USB-C connector on the end that’s almost 30 inches long, according to Reddit user joshuadwx.

Pricing is expected to be somewhere between $30 an $40, while availability could be either later this year, or some time in the spring of 2025. The retractable cable is a convenience feature that should help keep your vehicle a little neater and keep the charger in place — since it’s permanently tethered to a car-specific adapter, no one is going to be able to borrow it and use it elsewhere.

A charger with a retractable cable is only as useful as the retracting mechanism is reliable. If it breaks, you’re back to manually wrangling cables again. A quick Amazon search reveals many existing car charging solutions with similar functionality, but from relatively unknown and unproven brands. Anker has developed a reputation for good hardware and also seems to be increasingly invested in charging solutions with retractable cables.

At a recent media event in Japan, Anker revealed a 10,000mAh power bank with a 27-inch retractable USB-C cable, while last month the same Reddit leaker shared details of an unannounced 25,000mAh Anker power bank that also included a retractable charging cable. If the company is incorporating this new feature into several new products, hopefully that means Anker’s developed a retractable cable mechanism it’s confident will be reliable.

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