What's your "real world" range?

[Wivenhoe]

I believe the battery in Cayenne is different to the Macan (not just size).

The Porsche Cayenne Electric features a larger 113-kWh capacity using NMCA (Nickel Manganese Cobalt Aluminium) pouch cells, whereas the Macan Electric uses a 100-kWh pack built with prismatic cells

Similarly the Cayenne battery is also different to the Taycan

The Porsche Cayenne Electric features a next-generation "function-integrated" battery pack with higher energy density, larger cells, and faster charging capabilities than the Porsche Taycan.

I don't wish to be controversial but with the significant differences in battery technology is speculating about Cayenne range using previous experience of Taycan or Macan relevant.

 

[CHP]

I have only done 1.5k miles but from my experience, there is not much of a difference between Macan and Cayenne on longer drives. Outside temperature and driving style have a bigger impact. The one thing that stands out in comparison to Macan however is charging speed, makes all the difference on longer drive.

 

[Matt-Taycan]

I can't say i'm at all bothered/concerned about range. I managed nicely with a 2023 Taycan GTS, often travelling 250 miles to Devon, with one charging stop. Are any of us actually wanting to drive much longer than 3-4 hours without a stop?
Agreed with CHP, charging speeds are the real game changer!

 

[Luminated67]

I can't say i'm at all bothered/concerned about range. I managed nicely with a 2023 Taycan GTS, often travelling 250 miles to Devon, with one charging stop. Are any of us actually wanting to drive much longer than 3-4 hours without a stop?
Agreed with CHP, charging speeds are the real game changer!

Charging speed it possibly the biggest game charger for EV, way more than actual range. When we get to the point that we can potentially add 10-80% in under 10 minutes which is basically the time it takes to have a toilet break and grab a coffee then the argument for sticking with petrol is a non starter in my mind. We aren’t quite down to 10 minutes yet but close enough for me.

Funny the son said that when he charged mine on the way home from York to the ferry he hooked up and the pair of them went over to grab a coffee and bun, the time spent in the queue was longer than they needed to top up enough to get the car home.

 

[Awaz]

Funny the son said that when he charged mine on the way home from York to the ferry he hooked up and the pair of them went over to grab a coffee and bun, the time spent in the queue was longer than they needed to top up enough to get the car home.

That's why I much rather prefer a 20-minute charge time for a proper relaxed coffee and toilet break. A couple of stops like that on a long journey are a necessity.

 

[Luminated67]

That's why I much rather prefer a 20-minute charge time for a proper relaxed coffee and toilet break. A couple of stops like that on a long journey are a necessity.

They were on a tight time window to make so it was perfect for them on that occasion but like you I’m a bit older and prefer to relax for a bit. When I collected the Lotus earlier in the year and drove up we stopped for a bite to eat.

 

[W1NGE]

Is this opinion based on your Macan or factual about the Cayenne? I’m waiting for someone like Bjorn Nyland to review it and see what it will actually do in proper test conditions. So far we have seen the GLC is extremely accurate to its claimed range and the iX3 not so much, same for the XE60, maybe when he or similar does a comprehensive test we will see how close or far away it actually is.

I do know after having the Taycan Mk1 and then having a Mk2 out for a weekend Porsche had improved the efficiency with the facelift and I would imagine that with each model this continues as they learn.

The 'efficiency" in the Taycan from J1.1 to J1.2 was achieved with a larger usable battery capacity and pretty much nothing else. Consumption barely improved but range did by a useful amount.

Consumption figures across the Porsche EV range tend to be very similar and not stellar when compared to other brands.

 

[Luminated67]

The 'efficiency" in the Taycan from J1.1 to J1.2 was achieved with a larger usable battery capacity and pretty much nothing else. Consumption barely improved but range did by a useful amount.

Consumption figures across the Porsche EV range tend to be very similar and not stellar when compared to other brands.

Well if true our own Taycan was always faulty because the Mk2 jumped 0.5miles/KW compared to our own.

 

[W1NGE]

It is true - but what wheels were on either car, what models were they etc. Minor efficiency gains in 5 years with the motors whilst Porsche fiddled with the software and rear wheel drive bias. Range mode started with using the front motor only and was then changed to be more rear wheel drive biased after 18 months since launch on the all wheel drive models. Motor 'readiness' was also tweaked which would have enhanced efficiency in a 'blink and you'll miss it'' kind of way. You can't really argue with the larger battery providing the significant tangible range increase - almost 14 kWh = 42 real miles extra assuming 3.0 mi / kW

The rear motor was also changed (lighter and more powerful) as was the simplification of voltages supported - 12v, 48v, 400v & 800v to simply 48v and 400v.

Active roll bars (PDCC) where optioned were also ditched - saved energy.

Recuperation / regeneration from braking potential was significantly enhanced from 290kW to 400kW.

 

[Luminated67]

Both ours and the Mk2 were 4SCT on 21” rims

 

[Luminated67]

Forgot to mention this early but when the son lifted the car for me, he and the wife were heading to York for a night before catching the ferry in Stranraer the next evening so I told him before parking up for the night call into Porsche York dealership and charge the car, well he called in to them and said he had just collected the car from Bolton and wanted to top it up before the journey to the ferry. The staff member told him they were only for their exclusive use and refused him.

Now to my knowledge all Porsche EV owners can use the Porsche dealer network to charge their car, is this not the case.

 

[Wivenhoe]

Not all and York doesn’t look like it is available. Here is the map and address of those that are.

https://www.porsche.com/uk/aboutporsche/e-performance/benefits/exclusive-charging/#charging-network

 

[Luminated67]

Not all and York doesn’t look like it is available. Here is the map and address of those that are.

https://www.porsche.com/uk/aboutporsche/e-performance/benefits/exclusive-charging/#charging-network

I wish I have knew this prior to sending him there.

 

[cometguy]

I'm writing as one of the rare Taycan owners who drives my Taycan across the US and Canada on very long road trips multiple times a year... One or twice a year to Minnesota from Massachusetts, once a year to NC, once or twice a year to Canada, etc. -- often thousands of miles at a time over a couple of weeks. You can see my road-trip charging experiences written up at the Taycan forum. So I have a lot of experience over the last couple of years in road-tripping a Porsche BEV. I get 210-250 miles of full-battery range in summer temps, driving on these long trips (often at 70-80 mph, but mixed a lot with lower speeds of course also). In sub-freezing winter temps, that range drops by roughly 30% (to 170-200 miles on a full battery).

So I'll say this, from my road-tripping experiences. I would really like a minimum of 400 miles of range in summer temps at highway speeds (say, 55-60 mph average over an 8-hour drive, which is realistic even when you drive a lot at 70-80 mph, because of the inevitable slow-downs due to urban-area congestion, construction, accidents, etc.). I don't mind stopping every 1.5-2.0 hr, which is typical on my road trips with my Taycan, to charge; it's refreshing, in fact, to do so -- though my family sometimes disagrees because they just "want to get there". Here's the problem: first, DCFC infrastructure is still in its infancy (or maybe elementary-school-age phase in late 2026); this means that there are not enough reliable, well-located DCFC stations across the US and Canada yet -- and even along interstate highways there are some notable DCFC deserts. But once you get off interstate highways very far -- especially in the 100-200 miles south of the US/Canada border from coast-to-coast, DCFC charging gets dicey really fast in a LOT of areas. Note that there are lots more DCFC stations than there are *reliable* DCFC stations; they are not one and the same thing. Yes, the DCFC infrastructure is improving daily/weekly, but we're still a long ways from having a DCFC station in nearly every town of population 1000 or more and at nearly every interstate-highway exit -- as is the case with gas/petrol stations today -- let alone a *reliable* DCFC station with such ubiquity.

Second, I don't speak for all road-trippers, but as an experienced BEV road-tripper who has charged at 1-2 dozen different-branded DCFC stations and has more phone apps for charging and RFID charging cards than I care to think about, I prefer to stop when my SoC gets down in the 15%-30% range, not lower (and usually not lower than 20%-25%). This is because of my first point -- unreliable DCFC infrastructure generally. Basically, I want to be stress-free on my road trips, such that if I get to a problematical DCFC station that I aimed for and there's a queue waiting to charge and/or charging-pump problems (like, out-of-order), I want to have enough charge to get to the next reliable DCFC station -- which is way-too-often 50 miles or more further down the highway. And when I have family in tow, there's both pressure to not let them get any range anxiety (which they all get if you get too low on SoC, even though they trust me as an experienced BEV road-tripper) but also not make them get frustrated at long charging stops every 1.5-2 hours on full-day drives.

Furthermore, even with my fast-charging Taycan, getting as much as 100 kW at 90% SoC still at the faster-dispensing DCFC stations, I don't want to be charging below 100 kW on road trips. So I typically charge from, say, 30% to 85%, sometimes from 15% to 90%; that's using 65%-75% of my battery pack only. So when you say, oh, it has a range of, let's be generous and say 250 miles in my Taycan on a good, hot day, then I'm actually only using 160-190 miles of range between charging stops, on average. But in winter, that drops another 30%. And I've had to
cut out planned stops on family trips more than once, sadly, because I didn't have enough range to get to the next DCFC station with our planned detours (and one of those times was on a day of driving interstate highways mostly -- New Brunswick and northern Maine, in case you're interested). Having 50%-70% more range would certainly have avoided problems like that. Yes, we're talking going far between large cities, but BEVs need to be able to do that.

Now, let's take the Cayenne Electric. I'm mystified at the huge array of full-battery range figures coming from journalists and early buyers -- ranging from roughly 170 miles to 350 miles at 70 mph... That's a 100% difference, and I don't understand it at all. Kyle and Tom both did 70-mph range tests and got in the 300s (both 350 miles at 70 mph on prototype Cayennes in southern California last year). Other journalists and early owners seem to be mostly clustered around 250-290 miles of full-battery range. One of the Out-of-Spec YouTube videos covered a Porsche-sponsored long road trip in the Arctic in winter (northern Norway), where they got 220-280 miles of range -- variable, naturally. That's not a whole lot more than my first-gen Taycan, so I'm following these range discussions with keen interest as I consider special-ordering a Cayenne (model year 2028). The first real range figures came from Kyle and Tom, and I thought, "wow ... 350 miles is a real game-changer". But as I see the lower figures, I get concerned. At 350 miles, I would be getting nearly 50% more range than in my Taycan, which would be good for me, meaning I could drive closer to 2.5-3 hours without stopping on long road trips, and I could actually go to a lot more of those national-park areas with large DCFC deserts. (If you want to see a real DCFC desert, check out US Route 2 from northern Michigan to Washington state on PlugShare -- a US highway that I absolutely could not drive with my Taycan, short of using level-1 and level-2 charging at campgrounds or whatever.)

I hope that more early Cayenne owners will be posting road-trip range figures. And I'd like to know if that absurd (for an SUV) rear spoiler atop the roof decreases range at all due to it being an unnecessary sail in the wind. I presume that the spoiler can be manually moved to level state at high speeds?

 

[babylou66]

Great post @cometguy