Lately, I’ve been driving our Cayenne E-Hybrid quite a bit, but mostly for school pickups and quick trips to nearby shops. For those short journeys, electric power alone is more than enough. In fact, I realized I hadn’t bought gas once in the past two months, and the fuel gauge has dropped by only about two and a half bars.
That fuel use is mostly down to my husband taking the Cayenne for the occasional drive on the Royu Driveway. He says:
“You’ve got to take the Cayenne out and let the engine stretch its legs every now and then. I drove the Royu Driveway today, and there was a huge amount of steam coming from the exhaust. The engine only runs occasionally, and even when it does, it shuts off again before it’s fully warmed up. I wonder if moisture from condensation is building up in the engine and oil.”
At this rate, we might not need to fill up again until spring. Still, I wonder if we should take it on a longer drive once in a while to use some gas.
So today, I’m taking a look at how the Cayenne E-Hybrid’s real-world fuel economy compares with its official figures and the numbers we’ve seen in our own driving.
First, a little about our home charging setup. We have a standard 100V household outlet in our parking area, and that’s what we use to charge the Cayenne.
The Cayenne’s 100V charging cable has a three-prong plug with a ground pin, so it won’t fit a standard two-prong outlet as is. We use an adapter to connect it to the outlet, then attach the grounding wire to a ground rod installed in the soil.
For reference, charging from nearly empty to full takes around 18 hours with a 100V outlet. But we don’t drive it in a way that runs the battery down every day, so most of the time it takes just a few hours to top it up. In practice, 100V charging has been perfectly adequate for us. (With 200V, a full charge takes around six hours.)
Next, let’s look at the Cayenne’s electric driving range. The website states:
The Cayenne E-Hybrid’s battery-powered range is 42–44 km, depending on the tires fitted, and it can reach speeds of up to 135 km/h.
In our case, though, the estimated electric range with a full battery is usually around 28–30 km. Since most of my trips are around the neighborhood—just 2–3 km round trip—30 km is plenty for me.
The Cayenne E-Hybrid has four driving modes: E-Power, which prioritizes electric-motor driving; Hybrid Auto, which selects the most efficient balance of electric and engine power; Sport; and Sport Plus. E-Power is the default mode when the car starts.
I don’t usually take the Cayenne on long trips or drive it on the Royu Driveway, so I almost always leave it in E-Power mode.
My husband drives around 25–26 km each way to his office in Osaka, and about 70% of the route is on the Hanshin Expressway. He says he can make the one-way trip entirely on electric power.
In mild weather, such as in autumn, he still has about 20% battery charge left when he arrives. In winter, however, he uses the heater, which draws a lot of power, and the battery has recently been almost empty by the time he gets to work.
Even so, a distance of around 25 km is within the Cayenne’s electric-only range.
That means no gasoline is used, and energy consumption works out to 3.6 km/kWh. With average household electricity costing around 27 yen per kWh, his one-way commute costs roughly 97 yen.
| Next page → What happens when you take the Cayenne E-Hybrid on a long drive in Hybrid Auto mode? |
Page: 1 2