Prius 4 120V outlet

Could you have misread a label that says 120W, not 120V?

The "lighter" outlet is 12V, 10A, which equals 120 Watts, not Volts.

 

Are you talking about your 2008 PRIUS - the Gen 4 (which is where this post is) hasn't got one - at least here.

 

What you need is an inverter that plugs into your 12V DC and gives you 120V AC.

 

I think you mean this: (from a Gen 2 manual. If you actually have a Gen 4, the location is different.)


There is no 120V outlet in any Prius, although I've read that in Japan, at least some models of the Prime have a 100V outlet.

As @fuzzy1 and the owners manual both indicate, those outlets are 12V, not 120V and are limited to 10A. Just get an inverter as mentioned by @FuelMiser and you'll be good to go as long as you stay within the power limits described in the manual.

PS. There's an error in the manual. Notice that is says the car must be in ACC or IG-On to use the outlets. They also work in READY mode as one would expect and, in fact, that's the only way to use them if you want to be sure to not drain your 12V battery.

 

Contact a computer store or three and see if you can get a compatible 12 V "brick" to use when in the car.
Or contact your computer maker directly.......if that is even possible.

As was explained above, if your laptop requires more that 120 watts to run, you might be out of luck.

 

I've used a 100W inverter in my cars to power a laptop via it's 120VAC power brick so it can be done. As others have said, a somewhat better option is to use a 12VDC computer power supply if you can get one. A third, and even better option if your laptop can be powered via a USBc cable (many newer ones can use USBc power), would be to buy a high power USBc power supply Like this one at Amazon:

120W USB C Car Fast Charger - Dual Ports PPS PD 100W Type C Super Fast Charging + QC3.0 20W Cigarette Lighter USB Adapter for Laptop Tablet MacBook iPad iPhone Android Switch Pixel
Price: $35.99 & FREE Returns

that plugs into the 12VDC auxiliary power plug (AKA "Cigarette Lighter") and use a USBc cable to power your laptop.

JeffD

 

you could put an outlet on this:
ref=sr_1_17_sspa

 

Yes, please snap a photo.

That sounds like it would violate more or less every electrical safety code imaginable ....

 

Never heard of a cigarette lighter 120V AC (Volt) outlet in any cars. Our Pathfinder has 120v outlets but it is a regular NEMA 5-15R receptacle. If you have a multimeter it would be easy to test if it is really supplying 120V AC or not.

The photo below is from our Pathfinder. The right two panels are regular cigarette lighter plug 12V open and closed. The left panes show the special 120v AC outlet on the center console with NEMA 5-15R.

 

Well don't poke your finger in there. It may kill you. And for sure don't let a kid do that. I'm 99.999999999999999999999+% sure that you misread it and it is 12V. No car ever came with 120V "cigarette lighter" style outlet. What a humongous safety hazard. NHSTA would never allow it.

 

Nope. Not possible.
Unless a previous owner screwed with it.
That type of outlet NEVER is used to supply 120VAC.
NEVER.

You have a misunderstanding somewhere.
Maybe there is an actual 120V outlet above or below that label.......which is fed by a built-in 12 V inverter.

 

Yes, please show us some photos. Built-in 120VAC is an option that very many of us have long wanted, since well before 2016, but just haven't seen on any North American Prius. So far, we are aware of only 100VAC on some Japan Domestic Market units.

 

sounds more like a cigar lighter

 

Thanks for the follow-up.

 

Yes, thanks very much for the followup. Too many things like this end in silence as the OP disappears, so that we don't know if we produced a correct answer, or if there were certain other cases that none of us knew or remembered.