Home · 2021 Porsche Taycan 4s With Performance Pack · Complaints

What 69 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Porsche Taycan 4s With Performance Pack

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (69)Crash / fire / injury (6)Electrical system (37)Engine (16)Transmission & drivetrain (11)Brakes (8)Backup camera & sensors (5)Driver assistance (4)Fuel system (3)Visibility & wipers (3)Speed control (2)Airbags (1)

37 of 69 complaints match · Electrical system · clear filters · page 2 of 2

Jul 5, 2021Electrical system

2021 Porsche Taycan, was driving on road, 78% battery, and car decelerated fast and turtle symbol popped up on dashboard. From there, no other warning indicators were lit. Car would accelerate very slowly. When the deceleration happened, I was driving, and had to swerve to the side to avoid accident with other drivers behind me. Car was towed to dealership where it is still sitting. Prior to this incident, there was an error in the precooling for air conditioning. The car AC would not work sometimes, and if you turned the car off and back on, it would sometimes work.

NHTSA ODI 11423458

Jul 3, 2021Electrical system

I was driving on high 495 in MA at approximately 05:00 in the far left lane at ~75MPH. The car had a sudden loss of power. There was zero propulsion. I had to quickly cross 3 lanes on the highway to the far right side; I was not able to pull off to the left because there was no breakdown lane. Once I came to a complete stop, I power-cycled the car and it resumed normal operations. I was able to keep driving with full power and no apparent residual effects. I did not take a picture, however this link shows the error message I received: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/motor-control-error-and-system-error.3114/

NHTSA ODI 11423311

Jun 28, 2021Electrical system

The Car shut off on highway with no warning. Was sent to dealer for update. update was preformed car has not shut off while driving since but has not started. brought to dea;ler they were unable to replicate situation and returned the car.

NHTSA ODI 11422549

Jun 26, 2021Transmission & drivetrainElectrical systemEngine

This has happened more than once now. I got in the car and as soon as it attempted to start up, I received the following error: “ELECTRICAL SYSTEM ERROR” I was not able to put the car in R or D. There was no other option to start the car. My car is 2 weeks old with less than 750 miles. Porsche has experienced a lot of these problems over the last 12+ months, yet this issue has not been resolved or acknowledged by Porsche. I am afraid for my safety because if this happens on the road or in traffic, there will be no way of moving this car out of the way.

NHTSA ODI 11422463

Jun 19, 2021Electrical system

I got a bright red electrical system failure light on my dash in my Taycan and the car is completely inoperable. It won’t even go into D or R. I tried to charge my Taycan the night before and I got an error electrical message. ElectrifyAmerica had to override my system to get it to charge.

NHTSA ODI 11421494

Jun 5, 2021Electrical system

I was driving at a low speed and the car suddenly stop and couldn’t move. The front screen of the car said engine failure error. It was like when you drive shifter cars and you do not press the clutch the car power out. I need to turn off the car and restarted. The car continue to work properly. I also notice that my car have been having charging issues. I do not know if this is related to the engine issue. Please fill free to contact me for further investigation.

NHTSA ODI 11419730

Jun 5, 2021Electrical system

While driving i experienced a sudden loss of power, I was traveling on an interstate going approximately 75 mph when the car suddenly and without warning came to a sudden stop by itself causing multiple cars to swerve and endangering myself and multiple other drivers. The car restarted shortly afterwards however I was at a complete stop in the middle of traffic, I then experienced this problem yet again, this time I was going slowly; however, I was in the middle of an intersection and had to once again restart the car after it experienced a sudden loss of power and stopped itself.

NHTSA ODI 11419756

May 29, 2021Electrical system

I was stopped at a red light on a busy street with no-one behind me, one or two seconds before the light changed to green the car shut down with no error message or warning. By then vehicles had caught up to where I was stalled out at the light and had to swerve to go around me. After about ten seconds I was able to get the car started again and to drive off safely. The vehicle has been at the Porsche dealer for the past three weeks saying they can't duplicate the issue and have not "had time" to install the updates to fix numerous other glitches such as my phone randomly disconnecting from bluetooth, the center dash nav console randomly going dark, the XM radio can't be accessed (even though I have a paid subscription, Porsche hasn't been able to get that working during all this time either even getting on the phone with Siruis XM to verify configuration and subscription). 3 out of 5 times the garage door opener fails to open the door. There appears to be serious electrical and computer glitches happening.

NHTSA ODI 11418975

May 24, 2021Electrical system

The day after receiving my Taycan 4S I took it for a drive and during the drive electrical system error popped up on the dashboard. Before we were able to pull over off the highway the car suddenly shut off and came to an instant stop. Being stuck in the middle right of the highway without even hazard lights working meant multiple cars had to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting us. I am not exaggerating when I say we could have died. Porsche road side assistance was horrible and unable to assist us in the moment. So the police were able to come after some time to block off the road and wait until a tow truck came. I had to pay for the tow to take us to the dealership in Manhattan (which was closed). Porsche road side service told us there was nothing they could do. Finally with the help of our sales rep they sent another tow service to take it to a yard.

NHTSA ODI 11418381

May 23, 2021Electrical system

Driving at 60 mph on I 95 near Boston; Car suddenly reported Motor control Error on the display and all power was lost; in the right lane of the highway was able to steer off the road onto the breakdown lane and come to a stop; just before the full stop the car shuddered jerkily. After shutting off the car and waiting briefly I was able to restart the car, the error had cleared and driving was again possible.

NHTSA ODI 11418237

Apr 29, 2021Electrical system

ON 4/18/2021 APPROXAMTELY 8:25PM. WHILE DRIVING AT APPROXAMATELY 65 MPH ON A LOS ANGELES FREEWAY A RED ERROR MESSAGE POPPED UP THAT READ "MOTOR CONTOL ERROR STOP VEHICLE IN A SAFE PLACE" THE CAR STOPPED ABRUPTLY ON THE FREEWAY. I WASNT ABLE TO PULL OVER TO SAFETY. ALL OF THE LIGHTS WERE STILL ON, ON THE INSTUMENT CONTROL, THE CAR STILL APPEARED TO BE FUNCTIONAL. HOWEVER, WHEN THE CAR CAME TO A STOP, (IN THE MIDDLE OF A MODERALTELY BUSY FREEWAY) IT WENT INTO PARK AND WOULD NOT ALLOW ME TO PUT IT INTO DRIVE. I TURNED THE CAR OFF AND TURNED IT BACK ON AND IT DROVE AT THAT POINT. I TOOK IT TO THE DEALER THE NEXT DAY DUE TO THEM BEING CLOSED AT THE TIME THIS HAPPENED.

NHTSA ODI 11414486

Mar 22, 2021Transmission & drivetrainElectrical systemEngine

WHILE DRIVING ON A HIGHWAY AT ABOUT 60 MPH, THE A WARNING MESSAGE APPEARED STATING "ELECTRICAL SYSTEM ERROR / PARK VEHICLE IN A SAFE PLACE." FORTUNATELY WAS ABLE TO MANEUVER VEHICLE TO THE SHOULDER BEFORE LOSING RESPONSIVENESS. VEHICLE THEN WENT INTO PARK STATUS WITH NO ABILITY TO DRIVE. THEN RECEIVED MESSAGE THAT 12V BATTERY IS LOW. VERY UNSAFE BECAUSE VEHICLE SUDDENLY LOST POWER IN A HIGH-SPEED DRIVING SITUATION

NHTSA ODI 11404336

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Working with the data? Download all 69 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 21, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2021 Porsche Taycan 4s With Performance Pack verdict →