tamour

Hi All, I just bought a CPO 2016 Cayenne S E-Hybrid and am in love with it! I've been trying to find information about the hybrid battery system but there doesn't seem to be much online (or from Porsche). If the lithium battery pack is charged up, can I run the A/C and other accessories overnight (or for a few hours) fully off of the battery pack, or would doing so kill the 12v battery? I do a lot of backcountry camping and exploring and would love to be able to sleep in the Cayenne with the climate control on and perhaps powering a smaller inverter. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Also, if anyone else has slept in or camped with their Cayenne, got any tips (comfort, gadgets to get, etc)?

Thank you in advance!

ChrisTDI

I have no experience with the hybrid cayenne, but would suggest doing a test run in the driveway.

wkearney99

As with any vehicle, make sure you bring along a Carbon Monoxide sensor. Even a cheap home unit set on the dashboard temporarily would be sufficient. You DO NOT want to be sleeping in a vehicle with the engine running without something monitoring the CO levels. A simple CO alarm is cheap insurance against risk of death.

As for the battery, the systems should protect themselves against being run down beyond a reasonable level. I don't know how long the hybrid will run the AC from battery alone, as Chris suggests, maybe a driveway test?

tamour

Thanks, I'll try it out. I was just wondering if anyone has experience or knows if the car will use the hybrid battery to run accessories or if it depletes the 12v battery .

PTEC

In your first question it sounds like basically what you're trying to do is precondition the cabin, which is a function the car can certainly do. I don't have one of these vehicles so I don't have a lot of in depth experience with this function but my understanding of them is that they are designed to "precondition" the cabin to a certain temperature so that when you get to the car to drive off it is at your desired temperature, either hot or cold as the HV system can cool or heat the vehicle without the combustion engine running. That being said I don't think the system is designed to achieve a temperature and hold it there for a specified amount of time, ie, overnight while you're sleeping in the back. So while it is technically possible the car could run the air conditioning system off of the HV battery I believe you will be limited by the software and you will not be able to achieve what you are looking to do. The heating and cooling functions of the climate control are mainly done with the HV system but (other than propel the vehicle) it doesn't do much else. The majority of the other functions of the car are run off 12v. When the car is shown as "ready" on the dash the HV battery is acting as the generator and is charging the 12v system. So running some loads of the 12v system with the hopes that the HV battery will keep it charged is again technically possible for the vehicle to do a certain period of time however I suspect you will run into obstacles because the car was never designed to do this and the energy management software will not allow it (at least not without some kind of workaround/s).

As mentioned earlier you could certainly test all this out in your driveway and see what your experience is but I think you'll probably just have to wait for cooler weather or buy a warmer sleeping bag.

tmckenna

I cannot speak to the functionality of the specific car, but I've been camping with a travel trailer for a while now, and as is my nature I get really caught up in the potential for extensive amounts of "technology" possibilities. The most appropriate is the possibility to run the campers air conditioning off of battery power. Now its not impossible but its VERY difficult and VERY expensive to create a setup that can reliably run air conditioning on battery power. Just knowing what it entails for a camper I'd have a difficult time believing that a car has a big enough battery to run air conditioning for 8+ hours. Even disregarding the concept of battery capacity, like others have said, I don't think the car would let you run AC purely on battery power for that time period.

Sidenote: I actually slept in the back of my cayenne for labor day weekend, it wasnt terrible but the fact that the rear seats dont fold completely flat makes for a pretty crappy sleeping experience because the basically half of the bed is at a 20 degree inline at all times. Its not awful, but its certainly not good either lol.

Quadcammer

some company makes foam pads to level things out for an air mattress, but i forgot the name.

tmckenna

I actually just found exactly that while trying to see if there was a way to make the rear seats fold more flat. Company is called Dream Case, cool stuff but for $800+ I'd rather engineer something myself haha

Petrolhead_007

I have built an in car sleeping board/ platform for my 957, and it served me well last year during my CO/UT trip. I can post a pic if needed, since 958 is pretty similar.
Sleeping platform is 2ft wide x 75 ish inches long, built it out of two 2'x4' ft sanded plywood pieces. Then on top of it I have 4" memory foam/mattress topper from walmart. I took out rear seats so I have flat sleeping surface.
For rear windows I created covers that have reflective sunshade material on one side, and black cloth on the other side.
Then I ran a blackout curtain that is supported by two front grab handles.
For outside of the windows I have wind deflectors so that on a rainy night I can have 1-2 windows down few cm for ventilation without worrying about the rain getting in.

On summer nights in desert I had the windows mostly open with mosquito net over them. This picture was taken mid August of last year, just outside Canyonlads NP. It was the perfect temps for sleeping at night, mid 60s even though it was around 100-105F during the day.
With a 4inch comfy mattress topper and blacked out interior, I slept like a baby most nights.

DAVfoto

Nice setup. I camped in Canyonlands in November and froze to death in my 4runner sleeping in the back, 80s during the day and 20s at night. Huge change in temperatures from day to night there.

To the OP. Sleeping in the car is a hard proposition, you need the ideal night time temperatures otherwise you will be extremely cold and the car will fog or you will overheat. My suggestion is a battery powered fan in a mosquitoless area and put it near the window. Otherwise, invest in a Roof top tent, a travel trailer such as a teardrop or something bigger along the lines of what tmckenna has

tamour

Thank you for the tips, and I love your 957!!

Regarding my original question, it was mostly meant to understand the power management. If I ran the radio for XX hours (or left lights on, or ran something off from a 12v plug, etc) will the 12v battery die or will the HV battery keep it charged?

DAVfoto

the car will only allow you to use power when off for so long unless you keep auxiliary running all the time. And yes it will die before you are able to start the car in the morning. That’s why you see diesel trucks running at night. They can run all night long no problem but for a hybrid. It’s a different story.

Petrolhead_007

In other hybrids it won't keep 12v battery charged when the car is off so I think it's probably the same with Porsche. But since you have hybrid you can just have the car run all night and it should turn on / off petrol engine when needed to keep the cabin at a set temperature.

Like others said, you need to test it out on your driveway.

tmckenna

I personally wouldn't want to sleep in a running car all night. Im not much of a worrier but I feel like theres too much risk for CO inhalation. Not too mention youre going to sleep like crap if the actually gas motor is constantly turning off and back on through out the night.

I know it doesnt help the climate control aspect of the conversation but if youre really planning on camping with the cayenne just get a roof top tent. You can get a much bigger sleeping footprint and not have to rearrange everything in your trunk when you want to go to sleep.

RazorKQ

What is the rating for the roof? I have side rails but would need to get cross bars. I have yet to find any specs on what the roof rating is and if it would hold a roof tent and my wife and myself. Anyone know the specs?