Day after purchasing Taycan 4S Electrical system error and bricked car in the middle of the highway.

[chrisk]

11/5500 reported to the NHTSA is a small number. Hope there are not more with worse outcomes.

Today it is 16 (13 for 2020 and 3 for 2021) complaints which is not a small number given the small population of Taycans and the relativelyshort time they are on the roads. Usually people don't report in NHTSA. Other big recalls for various brands have happened with only 1-2 complaints.

Good luck with your car!

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[epirali]

@BokkeBo: sorry about the issue, and I understand its frusterating. But I do not think it qualifies as "lemon" if there is a known firmware issue that can be patched. Not making excuses, but a lemon is a bit more dramatic than a comms error in the drivetrain that can be remedied.

 

[KensingtonPark]

@BokkeBo: sorry about the issue, and I understand its frusterating. But I do not think it qualifies as "lemon" if there is a known firmware issue that can be patched. Not making excuses, but a lemon is a bit more dramatic than a comms error in the drivetrain that can be remedied.

From a strictly legal standpoint, it may be a lemon in CA, given that it has been in the shop for the same repair incident for over 30 days. Sounds like he has taken the pre-emotive buyback and ordered another Taycan.

 

[BokkeBo]

@BokkeBo: sorry about the issue, and I understand its frusterating. But I do not think it qualifies as "lemon" if there is a known firmware issue that can be patched. Not making excuses, but a lemon is a bit more dramatic than a comms error in the drivetrain that can be remedied.

Well...46/176 days in the shop is a problem. In CA it's a lemon - repurchase happening BTW.

@BokkeBo: sorry about the issue, and I understand its frusterating. But I do not think it qualifies as "lemon" if there is a known firmware issue that can be patched. Not making excuses, but a lemon is a bit more dramatic than a comms error in the drivetrain that can be remedied.

repurchase started before this new issue. 46/176 days at service center is probably classified as a grapefruit.

 

[cgfrndpor]

I waited for a few minutes and it did restart and I drove it 15 interesting miles home without issue. I won’t be driving that car again - legit lemon .

looking forward to next Taycan. Has to be better.

So far I'm still 100% with my Taycan. I am confident this will get worked out.

 

[Casparado]

Wow...been reading this thread, and discussed it with my sales rep and service manager at Porsche Marin (California). Trying to decide whether to take delivery on our 2021 RWD Taycan now. Wife is certain she will not ride in it if there is even a chance of shutdown at speed, and clearly there is that chance.

My story so far: We turned in my 2015 Boxter GTS and paid for our Taycan, specced out to approx $120k (yes, we waited 5 months for its arrival at the dealer). We also bought the 7-year Platinum protection plan. We were sitting in the parked Taycan on the day we had expected to drive it home (home is 2 hours and about 120 miles away from dealer) when the sales rep said "this should be working" (referring to the wide nav map in center console) -- "let me check with the technician." After checking for errors, they decided on a full reboot, which took a day. So we drove home in a dealer Macan courtesy vehicle. Then we got news next day that a new instrument cluster unit is ordered (rush) from Germany, and should arrive at the end of the week. There will be another 4-5 days while it is installed, booted, and tested.

In the meantime, we are reading about the 12v problems, and possible software problems that may still remain even after this new part and latest updates. I love this == potential == new Taycan, as do most of you; but how can I risk my wife's life on a possible, unexplained power shutdown while in motion?

I expect there will be a recall, but it won't be immediate. And we'll have paid big bucks to purchase a problem.

Have not decided what to do -- maybe sweet words from the dealer will reassure us -- but mostly likely I'll have to try to back out of the purchase, sad as that may be. We have not driven it one inch. They can keep my Boxter, just buy it back from me for the price they gave me on it, and refund the Taycan purchase, refund the protection plan. Wish me luck if we ask for this.

I did have a solution in mind, since I loved my Boxter -- sell me a new 2021 Boxter, and I'll wait until 2023-24 for the electric version to arrive. However, Porsche made very few convertibles this year, and searching on my own I can't find a single one to buy new anywhere, nor can our sales rep. And I do NOT want to wait another half year to order one delivered.

Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions?

 

[chrisk]

Then we got news next day that a new instrument cluster unit is ordered (rush) from Germany, and should arrive at the end of the week. There will be another 4-5 days while it is installed, booted, and tested.

It is interesting how they would do a rushed shipment of parts in order to sell a car sooner, but when the order is to repair an already sold car they will do the standard shipment that takes at least 3 weeks... It says something about the after sales customer service.

 

[submatrix]

It is interesting how they would do a rushed shipment of parts in order to sell a car sooner, but when the order is to repair an already sold car like those bricked by the software update they need at least 3 weeks... It says something about the after sales customer service.

Probably because any fix that Porsche has is not widely rolled out yet, so it's very ad hoc right now. My bet is most dealers have never even heard about this problem, much less know how to fix it, so they have to reach out to HQ. By contrast, with the broken ICU, it's simple, just order a part and replace it. Not so easy with software, unless there is already a specific patch that the dealer just applies and then the problem is fixed.

 

[Scott Allen]

17 /5500 is a .2% probability of this happening. I'm sure I would be very upset if it happened to me but I don't consider that to be a widespread problem. I doubt there will be any recall.

My thought is that a lot of the problems relate to the dealer not checking the vehicle before delivery and not providing the service level we should be able to expect.

I would be upset if I went to pick up vehicle and the instruments weren't working. They should be delivering the repaired car to you.

 

[Chris8536]

For what it's worth, I called my PC representative and asked him about the sudden death issue. He said over six hundred Taycans sold in Holland, not a single sudden death reported.

I wish we could get more hardware and software details about our car by simply pushing a few buttons...

My previous car was an Opel Ampera(=Chevrolet Volt). I used an OBDII dongle and accompanying software and could inquire every single module in the car to get a status report, including software version.

So worthless. I had a dealer say there were no issues with the taycan while standing in front of an overflowing loading bay with ta

17 /5500 is a .2% probability of this happening. I'm sure I would be very upset if it happened to me but I don't consider that to be a widespread problem. I doubt there will be any recall.

My thought is that a lot of the problems relate to the dealer not checking the vehicle before delivery and not providing the service level we should be able to expect.

I would be upset if I went to pick up vehicle and the instruments weren't working. They should be delivering the repaired car to you.

what percentage of drivers are on this forum. 10 percent. 1? Now extrapolate. Everyone I know in real life has had this happen

 

[ElectricLove]

So, it seems like the issue is with the 12V battery, right? My company works in this space actually! I am wondering if anyone with a Taycan would like to work with me on developing a better 12V battery for the cars? I won’t say who we are to avoid self-promoting in a forum but I’ll say we have been doing this for Teslas for a long time! All EV suffer from the “industry standard” 12V battery syndrome which is an industry standard that was designed for ICE vehicles...

Working together may be nothing more than meeting up and letting me check out the 12V battery and how it sits in the car... or could be a bit more involved, up to whoever... I typically buy a vehicle to dive into but Taycan are pricey and I am only finding highly optioned specimens available for sale (some $200K or more)...

 

[DerekS]

I'm in the process of making a deal on a car right now that lands next week.
How concerned should I be about this issue?

My wife is telling me she is completely uncomfortable and she hasn't even been in it yet.

I'm a little more tolerant, understanding that software glitches happen etc...but I'm not gonna lie, it is concerning.

 

[sjlaube]

Add me as another 'Loss of Power' Taycan. I have 2020 Taycan Turbo, driving on Interstate last week at 65 mph, error message appeared "Engine computer failure, pull over and call for service." Car lost all motive power, pressing on accelerator did nothing. fortunately I was going fast enough that I could make it over to side of road. Shut off engine and restarted car, then able to drive home. Scariest experience I ever had driving car.

Had car towed to dealer next day, they talked to Porsche and updated two computer modules.

I reported incident to NHTSA

 

[kreshi]

I feel like this whole thing is like having a headache and "learning" through Google that you have Stage 3 brain cancer. It is a problem that Porsche has to act on asap, 100%. But saying this is widespread and people should not drive their Taycans anymore is crazy to me. Remember how Teslas are "autonomously" crashing into parked vehicles killing their passengers? Or GM with their faulty ingitions that killed 124 people. This forum is a tiny percentage of Taycan owners. It shouldn't be all about spreading fear now. Many many drivers are having a good and error-free time with their cars. I support the pressure put on Porsche to solve this asap. From my recent visit at Porsche I head that some updates are coming soon. End of june was hinted.

ps: I wonder how it would look when we separate this into regions? I see mostly NA drivers reporting this, or is it completely even/random?

 

[Day1taycan]

Really surprised by the amount of responses from people having had the same issue. Obviously this is much more serious than Porsche would let on. The dealership has been fine, but I would have expected a much more direct response from corporate. No apologies or any explanation from higher about potentially losing my life. I’m not sure spending a couple of weeks to get my money back is a fair response. This isn’t what I would expect from a premium brand like Porsche and not sure I will ever be a customer going forward.

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