B3rk

ajriches01

Love the Black PORSCHE and black pipes. Cannot persuade wife that we should change them but looks much slicker.

SaratogaLefty

Okay, so I did see the slightly bulging panel on the right side of the trunk but there was no obvious way to remove/open it??? I didn't want to force it. Just pull straight out from right to left??

sriklin

Sorry to hear that you are both having the same GPS issues. I have had the car for 5 weeks now, and it has exceeded all of my expectations, except for the inop GPS. The issue is with the GPS Module and antenna, as they are not receiving sufficient raim from at least 3 GPS satellites. There is a screen under GPS settings that has a picture of a satellite with solar panels extended with a number next to it showing how many satellites it has a signal from. I have had a zero shown in that screen since I picked it up. You need at least three satellite signals to have an accurate location.

As AJ said, this is becoming very tiresome... If they have indeed had to return two batches to the manufacturer, they need to find a new supplier. It is frustrating that Porsche has failed with such wide spread common place technology. I wish they had applied their no nonsense approach for engines, suspension and brakes to the GPS.

cometguy

first Panamera 4 Sport Turismo E-Hybrid in Massachusetts, from what I understand; I went to check it out this morning... A dealership-built car that just arrived at Westwood Porsche, not bought yet.


This is the instrument panel, showing the electric-motor batteries almost fully charged with 33 miles of range showing. The car had 34 miles on the odometer. I did not take it for a test drive (but I've driven a Panamera 4 sedan E-Hybrid), but wanted to go see this one in anticipation of the arrival of mine in a couple of weeks.

SaratogaLefty

Not sure where you are located but I just got signed up with it and spoke directly with a person at Porsche Car Connect to facilitate my logging onto it. Anyway, she told me for the U.S. it is only free for the first year and then $189/year thereafter. Interestingly when I was moving through the various set-up screens I did see one where it said it was free for 24 months. So not sure which is correct?

SaratogaLefty

So I just finished installing my control unit in my garage. Someone asked about the cost of installing a higher voltage outlet. I was quoted anywhere from $750-$1000 which I thought was pretty high. So when I negotiated my solar panel installation last June (still assuming at that time I would have the car in September) I first got the price where I wanted it and then told them they had to throw in the industrial outlet for free which they did. I had it installed with the NEMA 14-50 plug based on recommendations here and ordered the appropriate 25 foot cord with the car at no extra cost. Turns out as you can see from the photo I really didn't need the 25 foot cord.

I haven't yet read the manual so maybe this answer is in there somewhere. On page 30 of the "Porsche Charging Equipment Operating Manual" it says under "information", "If an industrial electrical outlet is used for charging, the charging current is automatically set to 50%. In order to achieve the maximum charging performance, the charging current must be set to 100%."

It doesn't explain why it defaults to 50% and what if any advantage/disadvantage there is to keeping it at 50% or moving it to 100%??? Anybody have any insight on this??

alexander_96

I wondered about that too. I can guess the reasons why the default is 50%.
(1) Some 240V outlets may not be able to provide the current the charger requires at 100%. (Is that 30A or 40A?). I don't believe the charger has any way of knowing what the current capacity of the 240V outlet is. If it exceeds the circuit's capacity it would blow a circuit breaker.
(2) Even if the outlet can provide the full 100% current, the homeowner might prefer not to run the current that high for various reasons, such as the keeping the total load on the house's system within bounds, or the total load on the house battery if there is one, or perhaps higher electricity prices when the load exceeds some threshold.
(3) The charger is bound to get hotter running at full capacity rather than half.

Of course the 100% current will charge the battery in half the time of 50% current, so if you want the quickest charge and the circuit can handle it, go for it.

HD2pct

Here is my $0.02. I had my 2015 S e-hybrid with Sport Chrono+ for a little over a year.

First, the technology is mind-blowing, You can, in theory, go on electric power on the interstate at 80 mph+ and when it runs out, somehow the ICE (internal combustion engine) will seamlessly take over. Well of course I had to try that. My electric power runs out, and my tach needle goes from 0 to whatever in an instant with zero feel at all. That alone shows that Porsche stays at the forefront of technology. They had to make some changes to the car for that. No PDK (a huge thing) an extra gear on the Tiptronic (8 vs 7) and most importantly, supercharging vs turbocharging.

I liked the idea of running on "electric" power only, but that doesn't really happen in a local "around town" situation. If I baby it, with the help of the tools on the car, I can go to the grocery store and the bank on battery power - in suburban Chicago where everything is 0.5 miles away.

I just couldn't handle driving this car on a long trip on an economical power setting (on mine you had e-power, e-power off - the every-day least consumption setting- Sport, and Sport + modes). If you are trying to "save fuel" you use e-power until it runs out, or turn that off, but stay away from sport modes. Do that, and on the interstate you will see your ICE switching on and off regularly. Is that something you want on a $100k car? I never liked that. I am a big Porsche fan and this shows again how the engineers are at the forefront, but I am not sure that it makes sense for a lot of owners who probably can afford that little extra drop of gas here and there..

James Walker

Just arrived, Porsche of Melbourne Premier Dealer for good reason.

cometguy

Valid points. My forthcoming Pan4 ST E-Hybrid will be my first hybrid of any kind. And I am interested to see how long trips will unfold. But I have a daily commute of 13 miles each way, and so I expect that I'll use electric only for half the time in city driving, and a mix of electric and ICE on the highway (though I may be able to go roundtrip almost entirely in electric mode in warm weather much of the time). Perhaps 4-8 weeks a year (if you add up all the days) I'll be on longer road trips, so 10-11 months of the year it'll be mostly local driving on mostly electric.

These new E-Hybrids seem very superior to the S E-Hybrids of the previous generation, with about 4 kWh more capacity and perhaps other technology improvements to aid in electric range. I seriously considered both the Cayenne and Panamera S E-Hybrids, but opted instead for an ICE-only 2015 Panamera because the electric range was just too small in the S E-Hybrids, and thus not practical. And, of course, it's not the savings in gas costs for most of us, but rather just avoiding going to gas stations period that we relish. So, I imagine finding a way to keep the ICE from going on and off so frequently in local driving, but I'm not sure how that will play out on long road trips.

K777

I have had both an SE Hybrid and a 4 E Hybrid and so has my business partner.
For us it was a income tax reduction that pushed us to Hybrid, basically meant I paid about the same tax on my car as a colleague in a BMW X4d. (same income tax band)

In my SE Hybrid I covered 38,000 miles and averaged 35.6mpg ( UK gallons).

SE.....
My method, was to run in e power only, unless more power was needed, and when it ran out I charged up ( unless close to my journeys end where I could charge from mains, whether at home or work).
I always used this method in the SE. At £6 per UK gallon there is a big fuel cost saving.
Probably 80% of my miles was local driving, or occasional 100/200 mile trips.
I did however drive to Paris from Leeds in the first week of ownership of the SE, and a year or so later covered 2000 miles around France, using the same method, and still returned a good average MPG on those trips.
The hybrid set up isn't as good as the new version.

4 E hybrid.
Mostly use the above method, but when low battery and not so far from home I will use hybrid auto. But rarely.
The main reason, is as you say, its a little irritating ICE on/off/on....
So far I have covered 5000 miles since Dec 5th. Average is 37.8. No massive trips but 3 or 4 550mile round trips.
One thing I have noticed, is that it eats tyres, more so than the SEH, but that's likely down to my aggressive driving, albeit that hasn't changed for 30 years.
Turbo charge seems better to me, albeit supercharged seems more logical on a car that perhaps isn't using its engine constantly, I have however experienced turbo lag in the exact same place I always had in previous turbo'd cars.
Overall the 4EH is a better car than the SEH, not least because its quicker, looks better and has the sports exhaust option, as well as the obvious better battery range - which will always improve generation on generation).
(but if your looking to by an SEH its still awesome).

cometguy

I wonder why they don't have the option to put "Sport Turismo" on the rear of the new model, like they did at the 2012 auto show when this photo of the concept version was taken. I think it looks more interesting than "Panamera 4" or "Panamera Turbo" or "Panamera 4S"

HD2pct

Man I never got more than about 6-7 real miles on electric in my car. Love Porsche, they give you all the feedback they can about how to drive it, not just electronically but even *mechanically* with an accelerator detent but on this car, you just marvel in P technology but sometimes (often?) lament "hell if I wanted that, I would have bought a Tesla from that crazy guy"

My dealership gave me a Pan GTS loaner a couple of times, with sport exhaust. One mile into your drive, you ask yourself what you are trying to achieve by having a Pan e-hybrid..

ssiminou

Has anyone driven a Panamera with Rear Wheels Steering, then one without it? Did it make a noticeable difference?

For those who have only driven their car and optioned for it: does it feel better in turns and easier to park?