DeWalt 120W 2-Port PD Car Charger

Why I picked up this charger

I spend a lot of time bouncing between jobsites and client visits, and I’ve tried more 12V car chargers than I care to admit. Most claim “laptop-capable” or “fast charge” and then crumble the moment you plug in anything more demanding than a phone. I grabbed the DeWalt 120W car charger specifically because it promises real USB Power Delivery with PPS across two USB‑C ports and a total output that’s more in line with what wall adapters offer today. After several weeks of daily use, it has largely replaced my AC inverter and brick charger combo in the truck.

Design and build

The charger has DeWalt’s familiar yellow-and-black livery in a compact housing that’s easy to locate in a crowded center console. It’s light (about 59 g) but doesn’t feel flimsy. The plug seats firmly in my 12V socket without wobble, and the strain relief around the ports seems better than the average car charger. There are two USB‑C ports—no legacy USB‑A—so it’s modern by design and focused on PD devices.

Given its jobsite positioning, the plastic shell is on the thicker side and shrugs off scuffs. I’ve tossed it into a tool bag more than once; it came back without cracked seams or bent contacts. There’s no included cable, which is fine by me—high-wattage USB‑C is fussy about cable quality, and you’ll want to pick your own 100 W, e‑marked cables anyway.

Real‑world charging performance

The short version: this is one of the few 12V plug-in chargers I’ve used that can reliably push laptop-level power while still fast-charging a phone or tablet on the other port.

• Single-port laptop charging: Using an e‑marked 100 W cable, my 13–14" USB‑C laptops negotiated 60–65 W without protest and, critically, without the dreaded “low power adapter” warning. Charge rates were stable; no pulsing or dropouts. That’s enough to maintain or slowly increase battery on modern ultrabooks while working, which is all I ask on the road.

• Single-port phone and tablet charging: With PPS support, my Android phones picked up “Super Fast Charging,” and iPads pulled in the 30–35 W range as expected over PD. For typical top-ups between stops, it’s meaningfully faster than the garden-variety 18–24 W car adapters.

• Dual-port loads: With a laptop on one port and a phone or tablet on the other, the charger smartly allocates power. A common combo for me was ~60 W to the laptop and ~25 W to the phone. Neither device complained, and I didn’t see throttling unless I tried to push both ports hard with two laptops. In that scenario, you’ll run into the total 120 W budget (and the limits of your vehicle’s 12V socket) pretty quickly.

PPS (part of PD 3.0) is the quiet hero here—it lets the charger fine-tune voltage and current on the fly, which keeps phones cooler and maintains fast rates longer.

Vehicle power considerations that actually matter

High-watt car charging isn’t just about the adapter; it’s about the vehicle circuit feeding it.

• Fuse limits: A 120 W output at the USB side can translate to roughly 10–12 A from the 12V socket once you account for conversion losses. Many vehicles fuse the front accessory socket at 10 A; some are 15 A. If yours is 10 A, running the charger at the ragged edge may blow that fuse. Check your owner’s manual and use the higher-amp socket if you have one.

• Engine on vs. off: Pulling 60–100 W with the engine off will drain a starter battery faster than you think. I limit high-power charging to when the engine is running and reserve engine-off top-ups to low-draw devices.

• Input voltage: This charger is for 12V systems. If you’re in a 24V commercial vehicle, look elsewhere.

None of this is unique to this charger, but at 120 W, these realities are worth planning around.

Cables and compatibility

DeWalt recommends a 100 W cable, and that’s the right call. To get above 60 W on USB‑C, you need an e‑marked cable. I tested with two such cables; both allowed higher PD profiles to negotiate instantly. Lower-spec cables worked fine for phones and tablets but capped the laptop draw around 45–60 W.

Device compatibility has been excellent. Anything that plays nicely with USB PD 3.0 or PPS worked exactly as expected. Apple laptops negotiate standard PD profiles; Android phones that support PPS benefit from steadier fast charging; iPads and game handhelds quietly sip at their preferred rates.

Charging DEWALT batteries in the truck

If you use the DEWALT USB Charging Kit (DCB094), this car charger pairs well with it. The DCB094 can accept PD input to charge 20V Max packs; feeding it from the DeWalt 120W car charger let me top off compact packs between stops without dragging an inverter along. It’s a neat way to keep the tool ecosystem mobile, and it avoids some of the inefficiency of running an AC charger off a DC inverter.

Thermal behavior and safety

Pushing 60–100 W in a small package will make any converter warm. After extended laptop charging, the housing on my unit was warm to the touch but never uncomfortably hot. The hotter area, unsurprisingly, was around the metal tip and the vehicle socket—where poor contact or a loose fit can create heat. A few common-sense pointers I follow:

• Make sure your 12V socket is clean and the plug fully seats—dust and a wobbly fit are heat-makers.
• Don’t bury the charger under a pile of stuff while it’s working hard; give it some airflow.
• Use quality, undamaged cables; kinks and bent connectors create their own issues.
• If you smell hot plastic or the plug is too hot to touch, disconnect and inspect the socket.

DeWalt states it’s certified for safety and uses regulated charging behavior. I can’t test certifications, but the PD/PPS negotiations behaved predictably and safely with every device I tried.

What I like

• Honest, sustained power: It actually runs a laptop at 60–65 W while simultaneously fast-charging a phone.
• Two USB‑C ports only: Modern, simple, and it shares power intelligently.
• PPS support: Better fast-charging behavior for compatible phones.
• Compact, jobsite-friendly build: Tough enough to live in a work truck, light enough for rental cars.
• Plays nicely with the DCB094 kit for charging DEWALT packs on the go.

What could be better

• 24V support would broaden the audience. As it stands, 24V fleets need a different solution.
• A clearer per-port power map in the documentation would help set expectations for dual-laptop scenarios.
• Including a short 100 W cable would reduce user error, though I understand the cost trade-off.
• At full tilt, you’re at the mercy of your vehicle’s 12V wiring and fuse ratings—more a reality than a flaw, but worth highlighting.

Who it’s for

• Tradespeople and field techs who want to power a laptop and keep phones topped off without an inverter.
• Anyone in the DeWalt ecosystem with a DCB094 who wants to charge 20V Max batteries from the truck.
• Road trippers and rideshare drivers who need fast, reliable charging for multiple modern devices.

If you only ever top up a phone on short drives, this is overkill. A basic 20–30 W adapter is cheaper and simpler. But if “AC adapter speeds” from a 12V socket is your goal, you’re in the right neighborhood.

The bottom line

The DeWalt 120W car charger does what most 12V adapters can’t: deliver real, laptop-grade USB‑C PD power, with PPS for phones, from a rugged package you can trust in a work vehicle. It’s not magic—you still need the right cables, a solid 12V socket, and a running engine for heavy loads—but it finally makes DC-only, inverter-free charging practical for my day-to-day.

Recommendation: I recommend this charger for anyone who needs dependable, high-watt USB‑C power on the road—especially if you’re running a USB‑C laptop, fast-charging PPS phones, or charging DeWalt 20V Max batteries via the DCB094. It’s a professional-grade solution in a compact form. If your vehicle has a weak or 10 A-limited accessory circuit or you’re on a 24V system, consider your wiring and use case first; otherwise, this is the rare car charger that lives up to its power claims.