cometguy

As I've noted before in this thread (and other Rennlist threads), I took a 7600-mile cross-country road trip last year in my 2018 Pan4 E-Hybrid, in which I did not plug in at all for 2.5 weeks after leaving home until I returned home. I generally stayed within 10 mph over the speed limit most of the time on interstate highways (the bulk of the mileage on that trip), on ACC. I averaged 28 mpg for the duration of that trip, so that's a pretty good test of its highway fuel consumption. I usually drove in Hybrid mode, but occasionally in Sport(Plus), E-Charge, and E-Hold to get the battery pack charged some so that I could drive in E-Power mode in certain urban areas. (At home, I have plugged in every night, so as to be able to drive locally in E-Power mode as much as possible.) At the 20k-mile mark on my odometer, the computer said that my cumulative average since I bought the car new (at 0 miles) was 34 mpg, and that I had driven approximately 1/3 of those miles at "zero emission" (i.e., in E-Power mode). [I note that the car's computer (as on most cars) tends to over-estimate the mpg figures by about 10-20 percent (too high), compared to my personal calculations from records of odometer reading and gallons of gas filled upon each fill-up. I would have to go back to look at my fill-up records for that 7600-mile trip to see how closely my numbers compare with the computer's. This might suggest a figure closer to 25-26 mpg for that trip, and 30-31 mpg for the lifetime of the car.]

user 8298308

That's some very useful information, thanks to you both. I do a bit of city driving on the weekends, and I do plan on using my employer's (free) charge stations in while parked in the day, so I hope that would improve my overall fuel consumption number.

Now I just need to find one in my budget!

user 8298308

As I'm actively looking and talking with dealers, I'm finding what I think are some very low trade offers for my CPO 2016 Panamera 4S. This is the last real hurdle to me getting into a 2018 e-hybrid. Crossing my fingers that I can work something out this week.

Wilson Laidlaw

It has been quite cold in the UK during the last few days (not by Canadian standards of course) but yesterday morning, my charge plug would not release. The release button felt absolutely solid and immobile. The cover on the left hand side of the luggage compartment was also so stiff, that with my weak arthritic hands, I could not pull it off its clips to get at the emergency charge plug release. I phoned my local Porsche service centre, who are always very helpful. I found there is another way to release the plug, if like mine, the regular release button has frozen solid. If you turn the ignition on while depressing the brake (preferably half in and half out of the vehicle), then leap round (mine is a RHD car) to remove the charge plug, if you get there within 10 seconds, you should find the locking solenoid has released. On closer observation, I could see that when the charge indicator is illuminated, the LED light was full of ice crystals. This also almost certainly explains why the cover will not latch shut on cold mornings. The sealing round the charge port has obviously broken down and is allowing water to get into the internals. This may also explain some of the anomalous behaviour such as "E-Power not available" when the temperature is moderate and the battery is full. I suspect the break down of the waterproofing may have something to do with how hard I have to thump the cover to latch or unlatch it, which has always offended my mechanical sympathies.

Wilson

cometguy

The only time that I have ever charged outdoors is at Porsche dealerships in good weather. You are charging outdoors? One thing that worries me about BEVs on long trips is public charging outdoors in poor weather conditions. I have never brought my charging cables in my Pan4 E-Hybrid when travelling out of town; I have simply used gasoline/petrol only on long trips.

We have an attached garage here at home where I have done 99% of my charging; it is not heated, so it can get cold in the middle of winter -- generally about 20-30 degrees (F) above outside ambient air temperature. So the garage has occasionally gotten down to about 15-20 degrees F while charging, but I've had no problems like you describe. In winter here, the humidity and dew point are so low that the air is very dry.

MKC91

Good information Wilson; I hope something like that never happense to me. My local service centre has been, at times, clueless about my car. One time I went to pick it up and they couldn't find it and when they did, the car battery was dead and no one knew why. I ended up getting another loaner for the day.
I have also just received notice of a "Complimentary Technology Update". Not sure what it includes, and I am not looking foward to this next visit as I am still dealing with issues.
-- Mike

Jmiran

I’ve been driving my new 4ehybrid for a couple days now and I’m looking for some insight regarding something I’ve noticed. While driving in Hybrid Auto on local roads, the tachometer will drop to 0 when I come to a stop. I assume the engine has shut off or the battery has engaged. When I start to accelerate, even gently, the engine will roar a bit and the tach will jump up to 1500 or 2000. It’s similar to the sensation when I test drove vehicles with the engine stop/start function which I found irritating. I never noticed this during my test drives though, admittedly, I was lucky to drive vehicles with almost full batteries so there was a lot of driving in electric mode. Is my experience normal? I’m sure I can get used to it but it is not an entirely smooth transition from 0 rpm to 2000 rpm. Thanks in advance!

SaratogaLefty

So I'm not sure what is causing your experience. When starting first thing after not having been driven for a while, the car should automatically start off in electric only mode. If you switch it to Hybrid mode then if you accelerate a little harder or while making a turn with some speed, the ICE will usually kick on. It will then stay on until it reaches normal operating temperature. After that if you are in Hybrid mode it will alternate between the ICE and electric mode depending on your driving conditions. For instance, if you are on the freeway doing 70+ miles/hour the ICE will usually remain on in Hybrid mode unless the car is traveling downhill slightly in which case the ICE will shut down and you will be in electric mode. As soon as you start slightly uphill at freeway speeds the ICE will most likely come back on. The change from ICE to electric and back should be almost seamless. When you come to a full stop, if the ICE has reached normal operating temperature, then it will drop off and you should start off in electric mode unless you are accelerating aggressively. Again the change from electric to ICE and back should be essentially seamless, not at all like on the straight ICE Panameras with the start/stop engine function where it can be quite annoying. Most of the 4, 4S, or Turbo owners I know simply turn off the start/stop function to avoid that situation. However, if you aren't finding the switch from ICE to electric and back seamless, then you can just put the selector into either Sport or Sport+ and the ICE will remain on all the time. You can also leave the car in electric mode and then all your driving will be in pure electric, even at 75 mph on the freeway. This will continue until the battery runs too low.

pinballplanet

what’s the outside temperature been like as you’ve experienced this? And, is this occurring at all times or only, say, shortly after start up before the ICE is warmed up? Also, what’s the charge status when this occurs ? Fully charged or battery depleted?

cometguy

Jmiran: I second pinballplanet's questions. I'm assuming that you either have not charged your battery pack or you have put it into Sport or SportPlus mode, unless your outside ambient air temp is at or below freezing. If above freezing, without addressing driving modes, you should be starting in E-Power, provided that you have more than 5% battery charged. It will resort to the ICE if your battery charge is under 5% (typically 2-3 %, in my experience).

Jmiran

The other day the temperature was in the mid 50’s and it was still happening after 20 minutes in the car. The battery is nearly depleted so it is starting in hybrid mode. I haven’t charged yet as the 8 ft cord is not long enough for my current garage setup - though that will be fixed in the next couple weeks. I did drive it in sport plus for a bit (maybe 10-15 minutes) but then switched back to hybrid and still having the same sensation. I have an appointment with the dealer tomorrow to address a Porsche Connect issue so I’ll get their thoughts. Thanks!

Wilson Laidlaw

Unfortunately my garage/barn is mostly full of large chest freezers, horse tack, blankets and other rubbish, cattle, poultry and pig feed, compact tractors and so on for my wife's farming activities. I am allowed a small corner of it to store my 1977 911 RSR but no chance of getting the Panamera in there. I also only have a 3kW supply at the garage against the 7.2kW/32A supply commando socket up at the house. It has been very wet in the UK since October and last Sunday night was the first really cold night we have had. I have had problems with water in the charge port before, as the drain kept blocking, which gives a charge error. It has a one way rubber valve at the bottom of the rubber drain pipe. Apparently a tiny amount of leaf debris would block this. The cure is to snip the valve off the bottom of the drain tube, so that any leaf debris draining in from the port, will just fall out.

Wilson

louver

The key to your experience is probably that the battery stays more or less depleted. I expect that when you start charging at home you'll find the driving experience more nearly seamless. In the meantime, you can use the other hybrid modes (charge and hold) to maintain a higher state of charge and see if you don't like that better.

pinballplanet

I agree. With a good charge I’d expect it will start up in E mode.
You could test this hypothesis by driving in e-charge mode for a while until you’re fully charged and then see what happens upon to start up next trip with a full charge.

cometguy

Ah... I got the 25-foot cord with my car -- no extra charge. So your problem is that it's not charged, Jmiran, and as others have said here, you need to just put the drive mode to either E-Charge or Sport(Plus), and it'll charge as you drive -- you should see the charging percentage go up with only a few miles of driving. In E-Hybrid mode, you are not charging (except small charging via regen braking). I have been able to fully charge my battery from near-zero when driving long distances in E-Charge mode in only about an hour (but the car drinks much more gasoline in the process, so when driving at, say, 70 mph for an hour, I'll get 26-28 mpg in E-Hybrid mode but only about 17-18 mpg in E-Charge mode -- and this is in warm weather, not cold weather).