i have a 2014 e-hybrid Panamera. I'm reading best driving habits for mpg but I am not understanding HOW to drive this with Sport, e-charge and e-power.

i can easily start this car and drive in full electric 12 miles on average, and then press e-charge to recharge the battery while driving.

the dealer told me sport mode also recharges, but I haven't tested that yet.

so, if I'm on the highway, how can I also use electric? I've heard you can drive 80mph in electric but how? I know click on e-power and it says "e-power is not possible" but the battery is full.

 

There are 4 modes: e-Power, an un-named Hybrid mode you get when all other mode lights are off, Sport, and e-Charge.

e-Power runs off the battery first whenever possible. It will indeed run at 80 MPH. I ran down the reasons why you get the "e-Power not available" in the other thread.

Hybrid and Sport are very similar. Sport's more aggressive, of course, and a lot more fun to drive. In these modes, the car uses both gas and electric. Generally it's battery-neutral. If the charge falls below about 10-15% or so, it'll make an effort to charge the battery as if it's in e-Charge mode.

In e-Charge mode, it's running the gas engine to charge the battery, even when it doesn't otherwise need to use gas. It won't coast or run for short distances on electric only, the way it will in Hybrid or Sport.

e-Charge is MPG-neutral on the highway. You're burning more gas and storing energy. My experiments showed alternating between e-Power and e-Charge for long periods is nearly identical to just running in Hybrid mode. It's only about 30% efficient compared to plugging the car in, so it's not really an economy measure.

The main scenario where e-Charge makes sense is if you've depleted the battery, you're cruising at highway speeds where e-Charge is about as efficient as it's going to get, and you're anticipating a lot of slow stop-and-go driving before you get to a plug. In that case you're effectively storing "highway miles" for use in the city.

 

That makes sense, but I still cannot understand the "ePower not possible" with a full charge, 75 degree weather, and from a dead stop.

The car would start by turning the key and be "on" but in electric mode every morning. This is now never the case, it always starts the gas engine.

I called the dealership, and of course, they have no idea really since they are not trained that much on these. They said, "the electric engine will turn on when it's ready"

 

From my observation:
1. every time after I filled up the gas tank, it will use the ICE for about 5 miles.
2. it starts the ICE if the front hood is not fully closed.

I am not aware of a third situation yet.

 

Dealer said "the car knows when it can and cannot use ePower and will engage it when needed."

not a good answer...

 

I bought the car on Feb 24, 2017, and same color as you. I bought it in Orlando too. I drove it back home to Atlanta (460 miles trip) and it took about 13 gallons. On the way home, I was so shocked in the beginning to see that the engine turns itself off and on (because this is my first ever hybrid). I called a friend who owns a Prius and found out that this is normal, and I continued my trip. So to some extent the dealer is right.

To feel safe, use a Durametric to ensure that all the modules are fine. I did have a few flags, but I cleared them all after full inspection from under the car.

By the way, be sure to check coolant level on the Lithium battery side in addition to the V6 side. Mine was below the LOW mark, but it did not trigger an alarm. Normal Panameras don't have to check that, but we do, and it's critical to the health of the battery. Use 50% G12 only for both cooling system. And remember to use distilled water to get the 50% mix.

Oh, and for oil, don't use 0W-40 like the normal V6 and V8. We hybrids have to use 5W-30 ESP from Mobile 1. Don't not mix! Add only a few ounces at a time and check again after 5 miles and cool for 2 minutes. If the diagram I showed as green is yellow on your car, that means you have over filled your oil, and you need to drain some out to avoid damage to the engine before you drive it with the ICE again. I have not figured out how to suppress the ICE engagement yet. Please share if anyone has that figured out.

 

But, the issue I had wasnt that the battery turns on / off when it needs to, the issue was the car should have been "ready" and able to use ePower and I could not.

According to Porsche, if the car has a full charge to the lithium battery, temperature is good, the car should be able to engage in ePower anytime (provided fluid levels are good). Mine was not allowing me to engage ePower for days, even though the battery was fully charged. I clearly had an issue.

 

Yeah, I think you do. Do you have a Durametric to look inside the PCM?

 

Negative.

 

 

Hows your car now?

 

It's happened to me a few times (three or four times in the last year).

The last time was after not using the car for a few days. I thought it was because the temp of the oil and engine was low. After running on the freeway for 5 mins, the temps on the two gauges were reading in the middle of the dial and that allowed me to go and stay in E-Power mode.

The next morning, the temps were low after the cold start but for some reason, I was able to use E-Power mode though so I'm not sure what to make of it.

 

It's just weird how this is not something Porsche spells out to consumers. The dealers (who are clueless) ask the service departments, who seem to be making it up. Porsche should have documentation that says, "listen, here is how this works, and what to expect..."

 

So I didn't drive my car again for 2 days over the weekend and on Monday, it did not stay in E-Power mode. Then I experimented and put it into Sport mode for 5 minutes. After that, it allowed me to stay in E-Power mode.

On Tuesday, back to normal E-Power mode upon startup.

Maybe it has something to do with the engine or oil not up to the minimum specs (due to a long layoff) to allow constant E-Power mode?

Next time it happens, try putting in Sport mode for a while and see if the computer allows you to go back into E-Power mode.

 

I have to agree with this. My impression is that Porsche manufacturing is into hybrids, but they're completely failing to bring most of the dealerships up to speed.

A fair number of other manufacturers don't like hybrids, and only make them as compliance cars (i.e. Honda, which severely restricted sales of the Accord plug in hybrid). Porsche, on the other hand, built the 918, and has recently added the Panamera Turbo S as hybrid-only.

That said, my impression from driving PSeH was that Porsche's implementation is... buggy. It should always allow electric operation unless 1) there's not enough power 2) oil temperature is below a threshold (60 degrees F during break-in, 40 degrees after 2000 miles), or 3) some vague condition involving gasoline circulation in the fuel tank. The manual doesn't spell out (3), but it does say something about running the engine if you've recently refueled or the car has not moved in a while.

Yet I felt that there were times when the car just didn't want to run on battery.

I don't think fiddling with Sport mode should affect this at all. Beyond warming the oil up as the engine runs, of course.