Porsche Whistleblower: “60% of all delivered Taycan have battery issues“

[ecarfan]

Porsche Whistleblower: “60% of all delivered Taycan have battery issues that caused replacements, damages and fires”

“Six out of ten Porsche Taycan” ever delivered have a problem with battery management that affects and damages battery cells, requires replacement of cells and batteries, and is causing vehicle fires, according to a source working at Porsche’s headquarters in Zuffenhausen, Germany. Porsche is...

www.teslarati.com

Quote: “Six out of ten Porsche Taycan” ever delivered have a problem with battery management that affects and damages battery cells, requires replacement of cells and batteries, and is causing vehicle fires, according to a source working at Porsche’s headquarters in Zuffenhausen, Germany. Porsche is reportedly hiding the problem from customers and authorities and quietly replacing damaged battery cell modules without informing customers to cover up the problem.
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I hope this is not true, since it could negatively impact the public’s perception of all EVs. But if it is true it’s certainly very bad news for Porsche.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thats a pretty bombshell of an article. If the word Tesla was in front of it rather than porsche, I would likely be hearing about it on national syndicated news channels. I doubt it will get carried like that here, though, since its porsche instead.

Of the many things in that article that were interesting (and I dont normally find articles about product failures interesting), was the warranty stipulations laid out by porsche to maintain warranty on the battery, and how relatively short the battery warranty is. From the article:

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A REMARKABLY SHORT WARRANTY​

An apparent hint of Porsche’s challenges with the Taycan’s battery could be seen in the warranty for the all-electric sports car, which happens to be one of the lowest on the market with just 60,000 km or three years if following conditions (Porsche Warranty Requirements) are not met:

Vehicles standing longer than two weeks supposed to be connected to a charger

• Customers must assure that the Taycan’s state of charge remains between 20% – 50%
• Customers must make sure that their Taycan is not exposed to continuous sunlight

Vehicles standing longer than two weeks not connected to a charger

• Customers must charge the Taycan’s battery before to 50%
• Customers must check every three months and assure SoC remains at or above 20%
• Customers must assure that their vehicle’s temperature is between 0C – 20C

While 160,000 km is an average battery warranty in the industry, Porsche confirmed to me the 100,000 km lower, 60,000 km warranty and its restrictions.
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I mean, wow... Its not even a 40k mile warranty, and has all these stipulations on it. Now, granted, the average porsche is not someones "daily" unless you are talking about the SUVs, but.....

I wonder how much traction this will get? (rhetorical question.. probably not much, will get swept up in the news cycle in a few days tops would be my guess).

@ecarfan , thanks for sharing!

 

[tm1v2]

The article is written as though the source talked directly to Teslarati. That's a rather interesting choice for a Porsche employee in Germany. If this is real and the source really wants potential Porsche buyers to believe it, going to Teslarati does not make sense to me.

While there are a lot of details, which makes this seem legitimate, I'm considering this as just a rumor until a less Tesla-focused outlet picks this up and directly confirms the authenticity of the source.

 

[Cosmacelf]

The article is written as though the source talked directly to Teslarati. That's a rather interesting choice for a Porsche employee in Germany. If this is real and the source really wants potential Porsche buyers to believe it, going to Teslarati does not make sense to me.

While there are a lot of details, which makes this seem legitimate, I'm considering this as just a rumor until a less Tesla-focused outlet picks this up and directly confirms the authenticity of the source.

The author is German and has had many contacts in the German automotive industry. IIRC, the author was a prolific poster here on TMC.

But, yes, bombshell of an article. Interestingly, Tesla kinda did something similar to me with my 2013 Model S. Basically in one of my many service appointments (a bunch of minor issues, early build and all), I went from a model A battery pack to a model B battery pack, and Tesla neglected to tell me about it. I have no idea why.

The difference here, of course, is that the Taycan apparently, according to the whistleblower, has a cheap BMS which will continually cause problems. Gotta be careful with whistleblowers, they often don't know the whole story.

 

[Mockingbird]

Until there are any actual verification from reliable sources, this story can go right down the toilet.

 

[outdoors]

Until there are any actual verification from reliable sources, this "article" can go right down the toilet.

Stories have to start somewhere. I recall a recent one where truck was having to be pushed out onto a stage when is was supposed to have power.

Most would say no no. I say people make mistakes. Some companies have a habit of playing cover up.

No traction on mainstream, so we wait.

 

[Mockingbird]

Stories have to start somewhere. I recall a recent one where truck was having to be pushed out onto a stage when is was supposed to have power.

Most would say no no. I say people make mistakes. Some companies have a habit of playing cover up.

No traction on mainstream, so we wait.

These days, anyone can become a "journalist" and write anything on the internet.

Someone can claim that Ivermectin cures COVID and then it spreads all over the internet.

Unless there actual evidence, this story is nothing more than fake news.

 

[tm1v2]

Even *if* what's reported is all true - which as I stated above, I'm not convinced of yet because Teslarati source - there could be more to this story that makes this much less bad than the Teslarati spin.

For example, the article claims Porsche is sticking with a problematic onboard charger. I don't know anything about the Taycan's charger, but it's plausible to me that it has updateable firmware and this issue might be avoidable via firmware changes. The whistleblower might not be in the loop about firmware updates for this.

And if Porsche is indeed often letting damaged cells go unreplaced because there's enough good cells left to maintain the official usable battery size...that's pretty much expected from any EV maker, no? That's one of the reasons for having a buffer of unused capacity.

To me, the only truly big issue here would be if Porsche is really not fixing the root cause at all and just continuing to let this happen at the reported frequency. I'm skeptical of that to be honest, but I'll be keeping an eye out for more trustworthy news reports on this.

 

[Mockingbird]

The author is definitely one serious journalist. /sarcasm

 

[goin2drt]

Funny enough over on a very popular Porsche forum I follow they are in complete denial and claim this all 100% fake news. I usually say on these things where there is smoke there is fire and something is up. Maybe not as extreme as portrayed at first but something is up.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Funny enough over on a very popular Porsche forum I follow they are in complete denial and claim this all 100% fake news. I usually say on these things where there is smoke there is fire and something is up. Maybe not as extreme as portrayed at first but something is up.

Well, if it were true, you’d think it would be a known problem on a Porsche forum…

 

[ecarfan]

While there are a lot of details, which makes this seem legitimate, I'm considering this as just a rumor until a less Tesla-focused outlet picks this up and directly confirms the authenticity of the source.

I agree. At this point I am withholding judgement on the accuracy of the article. It would be helpful to have an independent confirmation.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

The article is written as though the source talked directly to Teslarati. That's a rather interesting choice for a Porsche employee in Germany. If this is real and the source really wants potential Porsche buyers to believe it, going to Teslarati does not make sense to me.

While there are a lot of details, which makes this seem legitimate, I'm considering this as just a rumor until a less Tesla-focused outlet picks this up and directly confirms the authenticity of the source.

What if the source couldn't get any German press-outlet to write about it? Did Dieselgate originate from a German press-outlet? Didn't Dieselgate erupt out of the US?

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Well, if it were true, you’d think it would be a known problem on a Porsche forum…

Perhaps they all want to unload their cars first... Hasn't Tesla often been very heavily defended on this forum... And no, I'm of course not saying that Tesla has ever done something as bad as is being reported here...

 

[Bradd808]

Unless there actual evidence, this story is nothing more than fake news.

Wait, I thought "fake news" was what you said where there was evidence and you want to discredit the source to deflect negative focus.

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

Until there are any actual verification from reliable sources, this story can go right down the toilet.

How many reliable sources from within VW leaked the Dieselgate scandal?...

 

[Mockingbird]

How many reliable sources from within VW leaked the Dieselgate scandal?...

They were researchers at the University of West Virginia.

 

[30seconds]

VAG, including Porsche, has a pretty poor history of telling the truth. Especially about performance and EVs. I agree that the industry bottom warranty on a super premium car might be a fairly strong signal.

 

[thesmokingman]

They were researchers at the University of West Virginia.

They were not sources but intead brought into assist with real-world testing. It was the ICCT that first brought up or noted the discrepancies. There were no whistleblowers.

Noting that the U.S. had stricter and more rigorously enforced emissions laws that Volkswagen’s TDI-equipped cars routinely passed without problems, the ICCT figured performing some tests on U.S. soil would provide them with a good control model. Enlisting the help of West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions (CAFEE) to assist with the real-world testing, it seemed the data would soon reveal the root of the inconsistencies. But when the results gathered via real-world testing were compared with the compliant numbers generated in the lab by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), it was clear something wasn’t kosher in dieselburg.

“We were amazed,” he says. “The engine software had to be responsible.” Carder added: “When a car is working nicely in the field but the NOx emissions findings increase by a factor of 15 to 35 times over the CARB testing results, it’s clear that there are some software strategies at work.”

“Developing an engine software to optimize certain aspects of an operation cycle that you know the parameters of is a challenge, but it is very possible,” says Thiruvengadam. “Knowing when to switch to the EPA-favorable cycle is the trick; it could be set up to detect the absence of steering-wheel movement, or, and this is known, we often turn off the traction control for testing purposes.” Either way, the result is the same: it turns the emissions controls on for EPA testing and off for real-world driving. Somewhat ironically, the presumed benefits of turning off the controls for normal driving include improved fuel economy and engine power.

Annnnd, VW VAG etc can go **** themselves. Because of their BS, CARB regulations have become incredibly obscene all because of VW. When Porsche gets tagged like here, I feel no sympathy. Porsche on their own has done plenty to screw their customers. Here's the sound of the worlds tiniest violin....

 

[mark95476]

I wonder where Porsche get their battery, charger, and BMS from.

GM got saddled with a rather large recall due to battery issues recently. They half-asses, slow-rolled, implemented multiple fixes, and eventually had to bite the bullet.