Cross country with the eHybrid
 

So, my wife and I have relocated from the D.C. Metro area to Los Angeles. We shipped our household goods and my 991 GTS and drove her 2016 Cayenne eHybrid. The trip took us through Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and took all of 3.5 days. All along the way, the Cayenne literally drove itself. I mostly used cruise control...setting it usually 7-8 miles above the speed limit...and the electric motor as much as possible. At speed, the battery usually recharged in about 45 minutes. We averaged a tank of gas/day. The nav system was flawless...we took a few side-trips along the way to explore local eateries. I cannot say enough good things about how the Cayenne handled the drive, beginning with comfort, performance, and reliability. Whenever additional power was needed the solution was either a slight press on the accelerator or switching to "Sport" and the effect was instantaneous. All in all, our Cayenne proved to be more than just an urban assault vehicle.

Awesome. Glad to hear it performed well. Definitely a great car for long trips. Comfortable, economical and available power when you need it.

good to hear. what kind of mileage did you get on the trip? Did you only "charge" while driving in e-charge mode or did you plug in overnight and/or during stops???

Based on time and distance, I would estimate we achieved 35-37 mpg on the trip. Using cruise control about 95%, average highway speed was about 73mph. Only used e-charge, which would fully charge in about 45 minutes. Mostly open roads and good weather also helped I'm sure.

I have just started considering this model over a diesel cayenne so forgive me if I have this wrong. E charge is less efficient than simply using the gas motor isn't it? I would think you would use more gas to charge the battery than you would gain in electric range. Am I missing something? If thought I read that e charge would only be useful to recharge the battery for full power when driving and the battery has been depleted.

I am also unsure how you got such great mileage on a long trip. I would have thought that the longer the trip the closer you get to to the straight 24mpg of the gasoline engine.

Well, I'm speaking from experience.

LeslieRC
I appreciate you taking the time to post your experiences!

I am curious, did you leave e-charge on the whole trip? Perhaps charging the battery while driving on gasoline is more efficient than has been written and that the drop in fuel efficiency/miles per gallon is more than made up for with the electric range gained as a result of the charging?

Otherwise I am struggling to reconcile what I have read on the empg/mpg of the car. According to my math, The longer a single trip, the lower the average miles per gallon (assuming no stops to charge). Assume a 50 mile trip on the highway. The first 14 to 18 miles should be all electric. The final 32 to 36 miles should be on gasoline only at approx 24 MPG ( I assume driving in a manner that is all electric first and then switching to gasoline produces the most efficiency/longest range ). That produces an average over the 50 miles of about 35 mpg. Similarly, a 100 mile trip would produce an average of approximately 28 MPG.

I welcome corrections, additions or real world experience to the contrary. I just want to make sure I understand this before pulling the trigger

All I can say is that it was continuous highway driving using cruise control without much interruption in speed. I did not constantly use e-charge, but made good use of it when driving through Oklahoma and Texas which was mostly flat, straight driving. I only used Sport when entering a freeway; otherwise, I used normal drive (which has a terrific coast mode) or electricity.

I get about 24-25mpg when cruising (on cruise control) for about 150 miles at around 75mph. I don't use eCharge. I did once on the same long trip and my mileage was a little less 22-23).

Apologies...I re-checked my math (and used a calculator this time!). I covered close to 2700 miles in just over 4 days and averaged 26.5 miles/gallon.

thanks guys. This all makes more sense now.


fuel economy aside, any reliability/service issues to date??

The eHybrid has been as dependable as a Timex watch so far. I have to admit a slight worry about what to do and where to go if something mechanically happened while crossing in some more remote places, but on the trip this SUV performed like it was on a test drive. I carry a quart of oil just in case, but have yet to use it...levels remained constant for the entire trip.

I have nearly 15,000 miles on mine....with zero issues. Knocking on wood.

Great feedback. Thank you both. Maybe I will bite the bullet and buy rather than hedging on it and leasing....

Great feedback. Thank you both. Maybe I will bite the bullet and buy rather than hedging on it and leasing....