Three Months with the Cayenne E-Hybrid Since Delivery

Lately, I’ve been using the Cayenne E-Hybrid mostly for short trips like picking up the kids or running errands nearby, so battery-only driving is more than enough. Before I knew it, I hadn’t put any gas in for two whole months, and the fuel gauge has barely dropped by about 2.5 bars.

The little fuel that has been used is because my husband occasionally drives the Cayenne on the Royu Driveway.

The Cayenne needs to have its engine run now and then, too. When he drove on the Royu today, there was a lot of steam coming out of the exhaust. Since the engine rarely starts, and even when it does it stops before fully warming up, condensation probably builds up inside the engine and oil, he says.

At this rate, we might not need to refuel until spring… But maybe it’s better to take some longer drives now and then to use some gas.

So today, I want to write about how the real-world fuel economy compares to the official figures and the E-fuel economy of the Cayenne E-Hybrid.

Our Charging Setup for the Cayenne E-Hybrid

First, let me explain our home charging setup. We have a 100V household power outlet in our parking space, and that’s what we use to charge.

However, the Cayenne’s 100V charging cable has a 3-pin grounded plug, so it won’t fit into a standard 2-pin outlet. To solve this, we use an adapter to convert from 3-pin to 2-pin, and the ground wire is connected to a grounding rod buried in the earth.

By the way, charging from nearly empty to full on 100V takes about 18 hours, but since we don’t usually drain the battery every day, most days it only takes a few hours to fully charge. So, 100V charging is perfectly fine for us. (On 200V, it takes about 6 hours to fully charge.)

How Far Can the Cayenne E-Hybrid Go on Electric Power Alone?

Next, about electric-only driving. The official site says:

The Cayenne E-Hybrid’s electric range varies between 42km and 44km depending on the tires, and it can accelerate up to 135km/h.

But in our case, the electric range shown when the battery is full is always around 28km to 30km. Well, since we only drive short distances nearby (2–3km round trips), 30km is more than enough.

The Cayenne E-Hybrid has four driving modes: E-Power (prioritizes electric motor driving), Hybrid Auto (chooses the most efficient electric driving to save fuel), Sport, and Sport Plus. The default mode when starting the engine is E-Power.

By the way, I don’t take the Cayenne on long trips or the Royu Driveway, so I almost always drive in E-Power mode.

My husband commutes about 25–26 km one way to his office in Osaka city, and about 70% of that route is on the Hanshin Expressway. He says that on that route, he can drive 100% on electric power one way.

Also, in pleasant weather like autumn, he often arrives with about 20% battery left. But in winter, since he uses the heater a lot, the heater consumes a lot of electricity, and recently the battery is almost empty by the time he arrives at work.

Still, for distances around 25 km, it’s possible to drive on electric power alone.

Of course, this means zero gasoline consumption, and the electric efficiency is 3.6 km/kWh. Considering that the average household electricity cost is about 27 yen per kWh, his one-way commute costs about 97 yen in electricity.