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

[jontybutts]

Cant believe there are 59 comments on this, now 60

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[logic]

The interesting part is the E-tron GT having a different charger...

While I was going back and forward between ordering a Taycan or E-Tron, I went for the Audi (around august/September) and to my surprise, I wasn't able to order the optional 22kW charger (in Belgium).

I never gotten a descent answer as to why the 22kW onboard charger wasn't available and I thought it was related to chip shortages. I wanted the Audi anyway's, as I also found out that 11kW home charging was more than enough for me.

I would be very surprised if one could be related to the other, but hey, sharing is caring.

 

[Itrsteve]

they are specifically accusing Porsche of fraud by swapping out batteries and changing the serial numbers. (odd since i have no idea what my battery serial number is and wouldn’t care if they decided to give me a new one)

that is a really serious charge.

besides the one incident almost 2 years ago, has anyone seen any other Tesla fires?

I would care, in year 2060 when these are collector cars, people are going to make sure the battery serials match the body.

Don’t be left with your pants down

 

[logic]

The good news for the Audi e-tron GT that is produced on the same VW PPE BEV platform as the Taycan and shares many parts with it, is that Audi opted for a different and better onboard charger. The described problem is not existent with the e-tron GT, the source told me, but it’s unclear why Porsche isn’t learning from the Audi team in that respect.​

Oh, mind you... he even got that wrong. They are both on the J1 platform, not PPE.

Source: https://www.audi.com/content/dam/gb...tations/2021/2021-07-07-UBS-PPE-deep-dive.pdf

 

[epirali]

When I bought my X5 PHEV two years ago a similar thing happened. X5’s started to catch fire all over the world and lots of bad reports on forums. I was still waiting for my car and I tempered my enthousiasm with the new car.

At the end everything turned out well.

I did install a fire alarm in my garage. I think this is a good idea anyway when charger a car inside.

I still have to install a wall box. I was thinking it might be a good idea to put it outside. I will have to charge once or twice I week. Or can charge with the standard 2,3 kw charger over night. That is what I do know with the 20 kWh battery of the X5.

I have owned 9 EVs and the only one that melted it’s battery and almost caught fire was the original Tesla Roadster. That car was a pioneer and really a kit car with the first iterations of large numbers of lithium ion cells.

all EVs have come a long ways since then and have elaborate battery management. Yes there will be stories of one or two cars for Something Happens but look at the total number of EVs out on the road and realize it’s a Non issue.

 

[whitex]

So, if your Taycan remains parked outside - exposed to the direct sunlight - for two weeks, Porsche would drop your battery warranty down to 60,000 km (37,500 miles)??? What happens after three weeks? Porsche comes to evict you from your home and seizes it?

Unless you live in one of very few places in the world during specific times of the year, I'm certain over two weeks there will be some interruption of sunlight shining on your Taycan (some people call it night time), therefore it doesn't fall under "continuous" sunlight exposure.

 

[whitex]

The good news for the Audi e-tron GT that is produced on the same VW PPE BEV platform as the Taycan and shares many parts with it, is that Audi opted for a different and better onboard charger. The described problem is not existent with the e-tron GT, the source told me, but it’s unclear why Porsche isn’t learning from the Audi team in that respect.​

Oh, mind you... he even got that wrong. They are both on the J1 platform, not PPE.

Source: https://www.audi.com/content/dam/gb...tations/2021/2021-07-07-UBS-PPE-deep-dive.pdf

Shows you how thorough the "credibility check" of the author of this article is.

Echoing what @daveo4EV said, something is probably up (likely a lot less sensational), but the article as written makes little sense, doesn't even fully fact check. Besides all the inconsistent information, I personally find it hard to believe that Porsche would pass on a $70 price increase knowing that 60% of the cars delivered will require significantly more than $70 in warranty costs. So while the article is correct, $70 cost increase is considered a big deal in the automotive world (I work with auto manufacturers and they fight for every penny), the simple risk/cost/benefit calculation would have made the decision a no brainer as soon as the 60% of the cars require $116.67 worth of warranty cost, which is probably less that a Porsche dealer charges for just diagnosing the problem.

 

[356B]

Most of these statements mix fact with bullshit. Taken in order:

1. Yes, battery cells are charged in parallel, and at a given ambient temperature a battery cell that's being charged at a higher rate will typically be warmer. This is why every battery management system measures voltage, temperature, and internal resistance of each cell and balances charging load to minimize this issue.
2. Uhh, sure.

3. Uhh, huh? The basic 'fact' here is that a damaged cell is more susceptible to fire. I guess so, but it depends on what's actually wrong with the cell. Also, the cells in an 800V pack are not different in voltage, the pack is. I believe that 400V and 800V EVs *with similar cell architecture* will have identical cell voltages. They just run more cells in series to increase the pack voltage. You can think of the number of cells in series in a pack as governing the voltage, and the number of cells in parallel as governing both the capacity and discharge rate. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but good enough for this discussion. Almost all Li-ion battery cells used in EVs today have a nominal voltage of 3.7V, Tesla and Porsche included.

4. "Most of the BEV fire-related problems..." Is the author referring the Bolts?

5. "The problem occurs when..." I honestly can't comment on this without knowing more about Porsche's battery management system, but it would be a colossal oversight if lower-power level 2 charging damaged a pack. In most cases, it's far kinder to the cells to charge at lower power.

I was asking this question (what are the battery safety systems?) a month ago to my Porsche tech at the local dealer. Point 1 above was his response. He pointed out that the system watches the parameters above and will throttle back the charge on cells that are not in spec with the other cells. If a cell consistently shows itself to be charging outside parameters of the others, it will throw an error or warning code.

 

[bj33813]

tesla fanboy click bait

 

[tigerbalm]

tesla fanboy click bait

If it's not true, aren't they exposing themselves to a lot of potential financial risk ?

 

[rs38]

shouldn't it be quite easy possible to check whether Etron RS and Taycan Charger are really different? anypone equipped with up2date PET stuff?

 

[Hugo]

I routinely charge at public level 2 chargers that charge at 5.5 kW (at my office, for example). In fact, you'll find a lot of commercial locations in the US with such low-power chargers because of the way power is delivered to those locations; they get three-phase 208V power rather than split-phase 240-volt power that residential locations in the US get.

I'll add: I haven't seen any battery issues, period. I've had my frustrations with the car, but the HV battery has been trouble-free.

Thank you for your inputs in the forum. Always great to have some real owner input. I’m currently waiting for a GTS. Can you please let me know what frustrations you’ve handle so far so that I can lower my expectations? Thank you!

 

[Kingske]

Thank you for your inputs in the forum. Always great to have some real owner input. I’m currently waiting for a GTS. Can you please let me know what frustrations you’ve handle so far so that I can lower my expectations? Thank you!

The main frustration is with the quirky and not always user-friendly software. However, at the end of the day it works well enough and your software frustration will be massively compensated by hardware delight. The car is absolutely wonderful to drive and - after more than a year of ownership - still brings a smile to my face every time I use it.

 

[manitou202]

I routinely charge at public level 2 chargers that charge at 5.5 kW (at my office, for example). In fact, you'll find a lot of commercial locations in the US with such low-power chargers because of the way power is delivered to those locations; they get three-phase 208V power rather than split-phase 240-volt power that residential locations in the US get.

I've charged my Taycan at home at 4.3kW (18amps) for 14 months and over 10k miles. I've used DC fast chargers on road trips, but the vast majority of my charging has been at home. I always set my at home charging to a lower level so I don't stress the electrical box (house not car). I have no need to charge any faster.

I've had no issues with my car related to batteries or charging.

 

[Tooney]

I've charged my Taycan at home at 4.3kW (18amps) for 14 months and over 10k miles. I've used DC fast chargers on road trips, but the vast majority of my charging has been at home. I always set my at home charging to a lower level so I don't stress the electrical box (house not car). I have no need to charge any faster.

I've had no issues with my car related to batteries or charging.

Your car must be in that problem-free 40%.

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