Bizarre 'whistleblower' claims “60% of all delivered Taycan have battery issues that caused replacements, damages and fires”

[daveo4EV]

we know porsche has manufactured 100,000+ Taycan's - I do not believe there has been 60,000 battery replacements…

I am however open to evidence that Porsche has replaced 60,000 batterieres "secretly"

I'd be surprised if they have even had 3,500 batteries "replaced"…that would be a warranty and design failure for which Porsche would internally be upset about…

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[tigerbalm]

Would a new HV battery also reset the time on the eight year warranty (i.e. do you get a fresh new eight years?)

 

[nickmdp]

Would a new HV battery also reset the time on the eight year warranty (i.e. do you get a fresh new eight years?)

Almost certainly not. If you get a warranty covered battery replacement at 7 years and 11 months, they'll probably cover any clear manufacturing/installation issues for a year or so, but another 8 years would be almost certainly a huge financial burden on Porsche.

 

[whitex]

Almost certainly not. If you get a warranty covered battery replacement at 7 years and 11 months, they'll probably cover any clear manufacturing/installation issues for a year or so, but another 8 years would be almost certainly a huge financial burden on Porsche.

My experience with many other products has been 90 days or reminder of the original warranty, whichever is longer. So in your example you would get 2 months extra.

 

[whitex]

It's not an "anecdote" if its actually happened to me. Porsche is replacing my entire main battery. (Which just arrived a couple of hours ago...)

It's also not a "conspiracy theory" as Porsche already DID check my battery and DID confirm that there was a problem with one or more cells in the main battery. That was THEIR diagnostic responsibility, and THEY were the ones who decided to replace the battery (not me). I don't need to run any "car scanner app" as Porsche has already done this. They didn't even volunteer what specific part(s) needed to be ordered/replaced. I had to ask them! It's not like I was asking/demanding a full pack replacement...

I feel for you, however as others have pointed out, your experience is anecdotal evidence, meaning a single occurrence of the event, which may or may not be isolated or part of a trend, however by itself is not indicative of any trend.

This thread is about a claim that 60% of Taycans have had their batteries fail or even caught on fire. There is no evidence of it whatsoever. Every EV manufacturer has had batteries fail. If a few handfuls of vehicles require warranty battery replacement, that is no evidence of mass failure. We would not need the warranty at all if batteries never failed.

My parents had a brand new iPad which had a failed battery in the first day of usage. When they went online, they found a handful of other individuals complaining about similar out-of-the-box experience. We can assume these incidents really happened, but they did not prove that any significant portion of iPad batteries shipped are bad.

To prove 60% Taycan batteries failed or caught on fire, you should be able to poll owners and see what percentage have had their batteries replaces and what percentage the car caught fire. 60% is more than half, which means the majority of Taycan owners would be affected, so in a forum with perhaps 2,000 owners, you should find at least 1,000 owners with replaced batteries and at least a few should have had their cars burned down. This does not appear to be the case, unless we put on our tin foil hats and assume Porsche gave those 60% of owners a million dollars each to keep silent (and if that's true, sign me up for a battery failure, for a million dollars I can arrange for my own loaner while waiting for a new battery from Germany).

 

[evanevery]

BTW - Replacement Battery Part Number is different than the original (I asked my rep). So Porsche may have recognized that improvements were necessary... Rep is anticipating that car will be back in service mid-next week...

(The Main Thread is here: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/fyi-main-battery-replacement-needed.13965/)

 

[evanevery]

In reading some of the replies here...

NO ONE (inc the author of the Teslerati article) is saying that 60% of Taycans will have a "total battery Failure", or a "battery fire", or even anything that might might be superficially noticeable. So saying just because 60% of our cars haven't caught fire doesn't mean that there isn't a real problem here. If that is the metric folks want to use just to justify their denial then so be it... However, Porsche ***IS*** replacing battery packs for these types of failures (under warranty), so maybe denial is not the most beneficial approach?

WHAT IS being claimed (true or false), is the 60% of Taycans have a battery/charging DEFECT which COULD ultimately result in any of the above (worst case). The article also goes on to mention that in many cases the software (or maybe service dept?) electronically reorganizes the battery pack to remove the failing/failed cells from service WITHOUT requiring a complete pack replacement. The claim is that this electronic bypass of the failed cells can happen (or be performed) without any catastrophic failure or even a loss of service (other than range).

IOW: Just because a Taycan hasn't caught fire, or hasn't been stranded by powertrain failure, doesn't mean its battery pack DOESN'T have a defect. Just like a typical recall, it may not have failed YET, or it could have even bypassed failed/failing cells (if the article is correct).

The point is... If you DO get the red "Electrical System Failure" message (which renders your vehicle immobile), you should consider bringing the car in to the dealer for diagnostics EVEN IF the vehicle magically returned to service after letting it sit for a bit. This is exactly what I did and Porsche determined (without my suggestion) that the whole pack needed to be replaced (even though I was able to drive the car to the dealer).

All-in-all, I'm happy to get the complete pack replaced (I expect) such that I don't inherit a loss of range as the failing/failed cells might be electronically/magically bypassed. The fact that the new pack has a different part number from the old pack also seems to indicate that Porsche has made changes to the original part and/or manufacturing process. (Although the article in question claims that the onboard charger is the root cause of the issues. ...and my dealer said the onboard charger was NOT one of the parts being replaced).

 

[evanevery]

In reading some of the replies here...

NO ONE (inc the author of the Teslerati article) is saying that 60% of Taycans will have a "total battery Failure", or a "battery fire", or even anything that might might be superficially noticeable. So saying just because 60% of our cars haven't caught fire doesn't mean that there isn't a real problem here. If that is the metric folks want to use just to justify their denial then so be it... However, Porsche ***IS*** replacing battery packs for these types of failures (under warranty), so maybe denial is not the most beneficial approach?

WHAT IS being claimed (true or false), is the 60% of Taycans have a battery/charging DEFECT which COULD ultimately result in any of the above (worst case). The article also goes on to mention that in many cases the software (or maybe service dept?) electronically reorganizes the battery pack to remove the failing/failed cells from service WITHOUT requiring a complete pack replacement. The claim is that this electronic bypass of the failed cells can happen (or be performed) without any catastrophic failure or even a loss of service (other than range).

IOW: Just because a Taycan hasn't caught fire, or hasn't been stranded by powertrain failure, doesn't mean its battery pack DOESN'T have a defect. Just like a typical recall, it may not have failed YET, or it could have even bypassed failed/failing cells (if the article is correct).

The point is... If you DO get the red "Electrical System Failure" message (which renders your vehicle immobile), you should consider bringing the car in to the dealer for diagnostics EVEN IF the vehicle magically returned to service after letting it sit for a bit (which is the recommendation you will find in these forums). This is exactly what I did and Porsche determined (without my suggestion) that the whole pack needed to be replaced (even though I was able to drive the car to the dealer).

All-in-all, I'm happy to get the complete pack replaced (I expect) such that I don't inherit a loss of range as the failing/failed cells might be electronically/magically bypassed. The fact that the new pack has a different part number from the old pack also seems to indicate that Porsche has made changes to the original part and/or manufacturing process. (Although the article in question claims that the onboard charger is the root cause of the battery issues. ...and my dealer said the onboard charger was NOT one of the parts being replaced).

 

[Vercingetorix]

I heard that 80% of the replacement batteries are bad.

 

[OTPSkipper]

Read the title of this thread. It clearly states 60% of batteries have failed.

I think you could have chosen a better thread. Unless you are getting exactly what you want, I suppose.

 

[rs38]

I heard that 80% of the replacement batteries are bad.

I heard that 79.2% of the replacement batteries could be bad.

 

[daveo4EV]

I heard that 79.2% of the replacement batteries could be bad.

I heard all of them could be bad - and if they are bad I also heard Porsche might give you an entirely new car + $150,000 discount on a GT3 RS and will purchase you a Tesla EVSE to replace their sh*tty PMC+/PMCC

 

[Jhenson29]

I heard all of them could be bad - and if they are bad I also heard Porsche might give you an entirely new car + $150,000 discount on a GT3 RS and will purchase you a Tesla EVSE to replace their sh*tty PMC+/PMCC

There is no defect in your vehicle or the battery. However, Porsche is aware that due to electrical wiring system limitations in some households, the provided electrical energy may damage the battery.

 

[evanevery]

Finally got my car back today. (The line item on the battery alone was $54K!)

More DENIAL(above) This is NOT an issue with the 50A outlet/wiring in my home... Seems all my other EV's (4) have never had an issue with it. My battery WAS defective and Porsche identified it on THEIR own and replaced it at THEIR expense. If it was something that was bad on my end there is absolutely no way they assume any responsibility for the failure (and $60K replacement cost). Who are you kidding?

The Battery was replaced with a newer battery (updated part number) which I am told has a different battery chemistry.

Also, pretty curious that Porsche just announced an upgraded onboard charger for the Taycan. (The charger is in the car NOT on the wall - all we have on the wall is basically an on/off relay). Curiously, this would seem to lend credence to the original claim (from the "Porsche Insider") that the lower power onboard charger was a main cause of these battery issues. ...and why the charger was upgraded on the Audi ETron GT when they started using the same platform.

New AC on-board charger upgrade for the Porsche Taycan dramatically reduces charging times - Porsche Newsroom USA

I am already scheduling the onboard battery charger upgrade so hopefully, between the upgraded battery chemistry and the improved charger, I will never have this issue again...

Anyway, I've posted the details of my experience here so I'll turn the thread back over to all the deniers (mostly anyway). If something relevant pops up with the charger upgrade I'll report it here as well....

 

[KensingtonPark]

I think that there is a logical and possible angle here:

Suppose that in the beginning of production planning, the Porsche engineers (particularly the quality engineers) set a series of benchmark tests for accepting battery components. Early on in the ramp up to production, a huge volume of batteries (say 80%) failed one or more of these benchmarks. To have any chance of launching the vehicle, the quality engineers and product managers evaluated the failures and agreed to risk accept lower some or all of the benchmarks. This then leads to more battery system components being approved for production, and that additional number amounts to about 60% of the production volume for the year. Totally plausible, and not an uncommon occurrence in manufacturing.

This does NOT mean that 60% will fail; it means that 60% of battery systems are below some set of measured benchmarks that are designed to reduce the likelihood of failure, fire, etc. It also does not mean that Porsche is an evil corporation out to fleece its customers. Clearly, the whistleblower in this case does not like where the firm landed (assuming the person is actually knowledgeable).

It is entirely plausible that @evanevery has a battery system issue that is tied this risk acceptance. Who knows?

It is also entirely plausible that this whistleblower is a totally uninformed lunatic spouting off about something he/she knows nothing. Who knows?

All manufactured equipment is manufactured with a set of quality/efficiency/production tradeoffs. There is no reason to believe that the Taycan is any different.

There is also very little point in arguing about any of this. @evanevery was able to get a battery replacement, which is great! Most of us have cars that have had no battery system issues, which is also great!

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