How Does the Cayenne E-Hybrid Perform on Longer Trips?

Next, here’s what happened on a roughly 90 km drive, mostly on the expressway, using Hybrid Auto mode. Since the car can’t cover that distance on electricity alone, it used both electric power and gasoline. The driver wasn’t trying to maximize fuel economy—just driving normally.

Fuel economy on that drive was 13.2 km/L, with energy consumption of 5.4 km/kWh. That’s roughly on par with a typical Japanese family sedan.

Here’s another data point from a much longer journey. My husband once drove around 560 km from Kansai to Chiba, mainly on faster expressways such as the Shin-Tomei.

Fuel economy came in at around 10.8 km/L—not an especially impressive figure, but very good for a full-size SUV weighing more than 2.4 tonnes. On a trip of this length, the battery charge typically stays between 10% and 20%. If it looks likely to fall below about 10%, the engine kicks in more actively to generate electricity.

As for the Cayenne E-Hybrid’s fuel economy and who it suits, my husband puts it this way:

“I think the Cayenne E-Hybrid’s fuel economy depends hugely on whether you can charge at home and whether you mainly drive short or long distances. For example, if you can charge at home and mostly make short trips, you’ll hardly ever need to buy gas—just like us.
We only use gas on longer trips or when driving on winding roads. With that kind of use, real-world fuel economy can be far better than the official figure.
On the other hand, without home charging, the engine will start more often, and the E-Hybrid is heavier than a regular Cayenne, so fuel economy will suffer. In city driving, you could easily see around 4–6 km/L.
If you can charge at home and mostly drive short distances, I’d strongly recommend the hybrid over the gasoline model. But if you mainly drive long distances or can’t charge at home, I’d choose a regular gasoline-powered Cayenne instead.”

For now, most of my driving is around town. But once things settle down next year, I’d love to take the Cayenne on a longer trip myself.