German Taycan burns down in Belgium

[Fish Fingers]

If the battery is punctured, the BMS will detect it and open the contactor, cutting off current flow. Sure, the car’s still going to burn to the ground — but at least you get a few minutes of smoke and warning before it’s fully engulfed as you said.

Now imagine charging at 300kW, 800V — that’s 375A. If a module already has weak isolation like in my video (2,000 ohms), and it suddenly goes full dead short (0 ohms) during charging, the resulting arc flash at 375A would be catastrophic. It can punch straight through several modules casings and ignite the entire battery pack instantly. With you sitting right on top of it.
That exact scenario already happened in Jiangsu (China) the car caught fire while charging and the owner died inside.

This happened last September. To make matters even worse the doors wouldnt open. So it was impossible to rescue the driver from the outside either before he was gone.

I wonder if this incident is what sparked the recall very shortly after?

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[Dee]

To make matters even worse the doors wouldnt open.

I think that's the main cause of his death, not the battery exploding.
He may be well suffocated by the toxic smoke long before the battery went kaboom which wouldn't have happened if the doors just opened.
But still, you don't want to be near the battery when things go wrong, agree.

For comparison:
A Taycan battery stores 90-ish kWh of energy.
1 Liter of petrol is 9 kWh so 60 liter is about 540 kWh!
But....
A ice only uses 20-25% of that 540 kWh due to inefficiency of a petrol engine.
Yes, only 135 kWh is actually used for moving but no one is afraid of driving around with a bomb, 6 times bigger than a EV battery! ?
I always use this in discussions with narrow minded petrolheads.
I'm a regular petrolhead btw. ?

 

[snstevens]

If the battery is punctured, the BMS will detect it and open the contactor, cutting off current flow. Sure, the car’s still going to burn to the ground — but at least you get a few minutes of smoke and warning before it’s fully engulfed as you said.

Now imagine charging at 300kW, 800V — that’s 375A. If a module already has weak isolation like in my video (2,000 ohms), and it suddenly goes full dead short (0 ohms) during charging, the resulting arc flash at 375A would be catastrophic. It can punch straight through several modules casings and ignite the entire battery pack instantly. With you sitting right on top of it.
That exact scenario already happened in Jiangsu (China) the car caught fire while charging and the owner died inside.

This happened last September. To make matters even worse the doors wouldnt open. So it was impossible to rescue the driver from the outside either before he was gone.

I've taken a look into your claim and found the following information --

There was a Porsche Taycan fire in Jiangsu, China, in September 2024. According to regional news reports, the incident occurred in the early morning of September 5, 2024, near a shopping mall in Suzhou’s central Wuzhong District, Jiangsu Province. In this tragic event, a man died after becoming trapped in his Porsche Taycan, which burst into flames following a collision with a guardrail. Eyewitnesses described the fire as immense, and attempts to rescue the occupant were unsuccessful due to the severity of the blaze and difficulties in opening the door.​

As you can see, this fire was caused by an accident, not a short in the HV battery, and the problem with the door may have been related to accident and fire.

For the record, there was a Taycan fire in Chongqing, China in September 2024 as well. That incident is credited with causing Porsche to initiate the recalls and recommend limited charging to 80%. In this incident there were no reports of injuries.

Following that incident Porsche took actions to implement battery inspections, enhanced battery monitoring software, software updates, and free replacement of defective modules. My car has been through all of these steps, except for replacement of defective modules (I don't have any).

Regarding the frequency of Taycan fires attributed to battery short-circuits, further research reports this --

Based on available reports and recall documentation, there have been no widely reported or confirmed Porsche Taycan fires since the high-profile incident in China in September 2024. The Chongqing fire prompted a series of global recalls and heightened safety measures, but subsequent sources—including recall notices, regulatory agency statements, and automotive news coverage—do not document any additional, publicly confirmed Taycan fire incidents after that date​

Should that change then of course I'll be on high alert regarding the potential for my Taycan unexpectedly bursting into flames.

In the meantime, I continue to charge to 100% prior to long trips of >200 miles, I charge to over 90% frequently at HV DC chargers, and generally I drive my Taycan as I always have. As you stated earlier, I too favor Porsche upping their game in battery design and safety, but for me that is a not a current safety concern - more of a long-term objective.

 

[snstevens]

I wonder if this incident is what sparked the recall very shortly after?

No, it was not. See my previous post.

 

[chun]

Based on available reports and recall documentation, there have been no widely reported or confirmed Porsche Taycan fires since the high-profile incident in China in September 2024. The Chongqing fire prompted a series of global recalls and heightened safety measures, but subsequent sources—including recall notices, regulatory agency statements, and automotive news coverage—do not document any additional, publicly confirmed Taycan fire incidents after that date​

Should that change then of course I'll be on high alert regarding the potential for my Taycan unexpectedly bursting into flames.

Well, that has changed.

I mean, for one, there's the fire from this thread.

There is this one from a community member: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...-taycan-love-story-burnt-to-the-ground.22058/

There is this one also, crash:
https://www.facebook.com/MyGrandfat...l-ns-highwayat-least-the-num/632314312642891/

There's this one - crashed at 30km/h in a parking and HV battery cought fire and spiralled, resulting in casulaties: https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/...n-electric-porsche-was-20250404065350-nt.html

There was one more in Malaysia, while driving, can't find the link.

All of these 5 were after that fire in September in China -

And there are many other ones from before that in China, and outside, like this one below:

Lawsuit isn't over: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...er-claim-porsche-ev-battery-sparked-ship-fire

 

[whitex]

I think that's the main cause of his death, not the battery exploding.

AFAIK, the door should always open from the inside, even with all the electronics dead, because it has a mechanical backup when you pull the handle all the way out.

 

[snstevens]

Well, that has changed.

I mean, for one, there's the fire from this thread.

There is this one from a community member: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...-taycan-love-story-burnt-to-the-ground.22058/

There is this one also, crash:
https://www.facebook.com/MyGrandfat...l-ns-highwayat-least-the-num/632314312642891/

There's this one - crashed at 30km/h in a parking and HV battery cought fire and spiralled, resulting in casulaties: https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/...n-electric-porsche-was-20250404065350-nt.html

There was one more in Malaysia, while driving, can't find the link.

All of these 5 were after that fire in September in China -

And there are many other ones from before that in China, and outside, like this one below:

Lawsuit isn't over: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...er-claim-porsche-ev-battery-sparked-ship-fire

Sorry, but all of these are accident related, not random battery short-circuits, except for the Malaysia fire which was also mentioned on this Forum. In that instance, the cause was not determined, but @f1eng hypothesized that it might actually be related to the 12V battery based on the location of the initial fire.

My recommendation to everyone on this forum is that if you are having doubts about your safety, then sell the car. Either that or stop reading threads like this that mix accident related fires with the known battery recall issues. The fear mongering isn't going to stop anytime soon unfortunately.

In an accident, anything is possible, and ICE cars have fires in these instances too.

 

[chun]

Sorry, but all of these are accident related, not random battery short-circuits, except for the Malaysia fire which was also mentioned on this Forum. In that instance, the cause was not determined, but @f1eng hypothesized that it might actually be related to the 12V battery based on the location of the initial fire.

My recommendation to everyone on this forum is that if you are having doubts about your safety, then sell the car. Either that or stop reading threads like this that mix accident related fires with the known battery recall issues. The fear mongering isn't going to stop anytime soon unfortunately.

In an accident, anything is possible, and ICE cars have fires in these instances too.

Not sure why accident related fire should be disregarded?

Last time I checked when a Chinese EV crashes, it doesn't just burst on flames
Take the all beloved Xiaomi crush at 200km/h on racing circuit that this forum loves to diss on... That xiaomi drove away from that accident Taycan seems to catch fire from crashing at 30km/h in a parking lot.

"You bought a premium car, so if you don't agree with premium cars catching fire at the smallest accident, you should sell it" Is this what you're saying? Or are you saying that people shouldn't care that if they crash at low speed, their car will burst on fire?

Also, no, not all of those are accident related; this very thread is about a fire not from an accident.
This one was not an accident: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...er-claim-porsche-ev-battery-sparked-ship-fire

But I get it, Porsche is so fire, that it actually catches fire, not like those cheap EVs from china with their "fake safety standard" where batteries don't just catch fire...

Again, like another person said it, for some of you, until someone dies, it doesn't matter.
And even if someone does die, like the Chinese guy, "ah... he didn't die how I expected him to, therefore your concerns over taycan fires are irrelevant and people shouldn't worry".

Why would Porsche ever do better, when people love eating their shit? Maybe try holding them accountable

 

[whitex]

It’s not about electric shocking, if during the DC charging one of those failed modules completely gives in in a dead short. The thermal event may be so severe a human may have no time to get out of the car before being engulfed in flames.

Remember you are sitting right on top of the battery!

There is a lot more current flowing through the battery during rapid acceleration than during DC charging. DC charging is sustained ~250KW max, Taycan GT can output 760KW (even more with a tune). The difference of course is sustained current during charging, but still the dead-short arc would be much larger during acceleration than charging. With all that said, I'm curious how fast the battery can catch on fire, given fairly heavy barriers between cells. I seriously doubt the scenario would be "accelerator to the ground, boom car explodes into a fireball".

 

[snstevens]

@chun - For those of us who still own our Taycans and enjoy them every day, your continuing effort to tell us that Chinese cars are better in every way is becoming distracting. Also, I'd like to ask that you drop the sarcasm.

As Taycan owners we are all trying to learn from each other, evaluate the actual risk of the ARB6/ARB7 recall, and in general make smart decisions. I hope you can appreciate that.

 

[chun]

@chun - For those of us who still own our Taycans and enjoy them every day, your continuing effort to tell us that Chinese cars are better in every way is becoming distracting. Also, I'd like to ask that you drop the sarcasm.

As Taycan owners we are all trying to learn from each other, evaluate the actual risk of the ARB6/ARB7 recall, and in general make smart decisions. I hope you can appreciate that.

As a taycan owner who drives it around 5000 - 10.000 km monthly, i feel I am allowed to tell you to stop telling people to not worry about Taycan's catching fire in a thread about a taycan catching fire
I guess that dead chinese guy should have sold his Taycan, eh? He died of worries, not of being burned alive

"learning from eachother" what? Did you give any tips on what do to if your taycan catches fire? Any prevention methods? Any new insights into how Porsche is fixing this, beside software? What exactly are you learning by telling people to sell their cars if they are worried?
What did you learn from this taycan catching fire on the highway while driving normally? Please...

The topic is about an actual taycan that cought fire while normal driving was happening - if you don't have anything to add beside "sell your car or stop worrying", maybe don't post; because I don't know what I am supposed to "learn" from your advice.

 

[ct14garage]

There is a lot more current flowing through the battery during rapid acceleration than during DC charging. DC charging is sustained ~250KW max, Taycan GT can output 760KW (even more with a tune). The difference of course is sustained current during charging, but still the dead-short arc would be much larger during acceleration than charging. With all that said, I'm curious how fast the battery can catch on fire, given fairly heavy barriers between cells. I seriously doubt the scenario would be "accelerator to the ground, boom car explodes into a fireball".

The chance of a module shorting while charging is far greater than during discharging (driving) even at much highee currents.

During discharging the BMS controls the battery very tightly, any minor voltage drop preceding a dead short will be met with an instant response by the BMS to open the contactor.

DC Charging partially bypasses the BMS as it lets the charger control the charging process. I know the theory is that DC chargers should be very strict on isolation, but out of 5 different types of DC chargers I’ve personally tried here, only 1 type of them (PTT-Shell) will actually refuse to charge due to low car isolation. All other chargers Ive tried will still charge as normal despite car isolation being very low.

Hard to picture the charger predicting a dead short and stopping the charge before it actually does happen.

 

[ct14garage]

There was a Porsche Taycan fire in Jiangsu, China, in September 2024. According to regional news reports, the incident occurred in the early morning of September 5, 2024, near a shopping mall in Suzhou’s central Wuzhong District, Jiangsu Province. In this tragic event, a man died after becoming trapped in his Porsche Taycan, which burst into flames following a collision with a guardrail. Eyewitnesses described the fire as immense, and attempts to rescue the occupant were unsuccessful due to the severity of the blaze and difficulties in opening the door.

This is another case with also happened in Jiangsu (many Taycans there) around the same time. But that was a massive high speed accident at over 200kph against a tree not guardrail and included flipping over the car. The driver could have well been dead just by the impact alone.

The one I’m talking about, happened during DC charging and the car was intact. Not the slightest signs of impact. Look at the aftermath.

There is also a case here in Bangkok where a Taycan caught on fire at a second hand dealer while being AC charged. No injuries of course

 

[Dee]

AFAIK, the door should always open from the inside, even with all the electronics dead, because it has a mechanical backup when you pull the handle all the way out.

That's irrelevant in this discussion.
We're talking about the more likely cause of death: battery exploding (by Cris) or the door that wouldn't open (by me).
As we now can read the car was in an accident and that was the reason they couldn't get the door to open.

 

[whitex]

That's irrelevant in this discussion.
We're talking about the more likely cause of death: battery exploding (by Cris) or the door that wouldn't open (by me).
As we now can read the car was in an accident and that was the reason they couldn't get the door to open.

Ok, so not a design flaw disallowing the Taycan opening the doors, but an accident induces mangled steel, which is a risk for any car out there with a door.

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