Panama Sport Turismo - petrol or hybrid?

[Nick981]

For a number of reasons I’m thinking of getting a Panamera Sport Turismo, possibly the 4S.
I haven’t a clue about the relative merits of getting the hybrid over the normal petrol powered version. How does it work? Do you just transfer to electric when it suits? Do you have to plug it in (I’ve kit got charging facilities at home but have other options). If the battery runs out, can I just keep driving using petrol? Can the car recharge the battery when running in petrol mode?
I’m really a complete novice with electric or hybrid cars, so these questions might seem stupid - but I genuinely need some help with this and would greatly appreciate it if anyone can offer advice.

[Nick981]

Yes - I know I buggered up the heading - Panama instead of Panamera…

[troc]

I’ve a cayenne hybrid which is essentially the same drive system.

The car starts up in electric mode and will drive the battery flat before using the engine unless you stamp on the throttle to wake it up early.

You can switch to an intelligent hybrid mode which will use battery or engine according to conditions or a sport mode which runs the engine continuously.

You can choose to run the engine to charge the battery.

If the battery is ‘flat’ then you can’t run in electric only mode but the car will still switch the engine off when possible to save fuel and always seems to have battery available to fill in for brief acceleration etc.

There’s a sport response button which will give you all the beans for 2 seconds and is rather fun.

Other than the additionally weight, I’ve not felt there’s any downside to hybrid and the weight - in the cayenne at least - is almost irrelevant anyway as it’s already so heavy

[Marshy]

Nick981 said:

How does it work?

Technically four, but really three modes of operation that you'll actually use in real life:
1. E mode - electric only. The car starts up in this mode, and it'll use electric power only unless three or so things happen: (a) you run out of electrons, in which case it'll switch to hybrid mode; (b) you hit the kickdown switch, in which case all hell generally breaks loose; (c) you exceed 80ish mph, which will trigger a switch to hybrid mode
2. Hybrid mode - the car will juggle between electric and petrol power according whichever is allegedly most efficient. I believe that, on newer models, if you have a route programmed, it'll try and use the most efficient power train given what it knows about the route (and I think it'll aim to exhaust the battery by the time you reach your destination)
3. Sport/Sport-plus mode - the car will combine battery and petrol power, with varying degrees of suspension and gearbox gnarliness.

Technically there are sub-variants of hybrid mode where you can tell the car to not use any battery power at all (if you want to reserve electric power for a city centre), or that you want the car to charge the battery as you drive.

Nick981 said:

Do you just transfer to electric when it suits?

As above, you can do. The mode selector on the steering wheel cycles between E-Mode, Hybrid mode, Sport and Sport-plus.

Nick981 said:

Do you have to plug it in (I’ve kit got charging facilities at home but have other options).

You probably want to plug it in: if you don't, you'll just be using the petrol engine to lug around a bunch of batteries and the motor. I'd guess at mid-20s mpg in every day driving if you do that.

My recent local motoring (mostly 40/50 mile round trips have been getting me into the 40s mpg, occasionally (just) over 50, but I'm always ensuring I've got a full battery through home charging.

Nick981 said:

If the battery runs out, can I just keep driving using petrol?

Yes: it just turns into a (slightly thirsty) petrol car.

Nick981 said:

Can the car recharge the battery when running in petrol mode?

Yes: but it'll cost you: not only is the petrol engine lugging around a bunch of batteries (see above), but you're also asking it to divert some power to charging. It makes as much sense as Toyota's "it's a hybrid you don't have to plug in" marketing - at least most of the time. The exception is if you're out of electrons, but are planning ahead for some spirited driving on Sport/Sport+. It's a Porsche, after all.

(Edit: you wait ages for a reply, then two come in at the same time...)

[Cheib]

When I bought my Cayenne the Hybrid only seemed to make sense if your daily commute meant you could do the drive purely on electric.i.e. 20 miles or so. Or you did lots of small local journeys and can keep the battery topped up from mains electricity.

Otherwise you are lugging 300 kg on battery and motors around and not gaining anything in terms of efficiency.

There’s also I suppose the possibility of tax breaks( not sure that applies to hybrids) or road charging.

Personally think if a hybrid’s battery range was say 50 miles it makes a lot more sense…at least where I live.

[Nick981]

Many thanks for the detailed and very helpful responses. They are very much appreciated and very helpful.
I’m now leaning towards the non-hybrid versions - I think they would suit my intended useage and facilities better.