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

There are currently hundreds (if not thousands) of cars, operating on roads of USA, that at any particular time stop in the middle of the road. The power is cut off and Engine Control Error is displayed on the monitor. This issue has been described many times on Reddit, under Taycan-Engine Control Error threads. The affects 2020-21 Porsche Taycans. As an owner of '21 Taycan, I have run into this issue 8 times in the past 4 months. I have been lucky so far not to cause any incidents. I've brought in my car 3 times to Porsche dealership. The first time, a fix was made, but it did not do anything. The second time I brought it in, I was told that there is a transmission issue, but since the dealership can't replicate this issue, they can't fix it. After the second attempt, I contacted Porsche headquarters, looking for resolution. The customer service requested for me to bring the car back to dealership for additional analysis. After I brought the car to dealership, I waited for over a month and then received an email from Corporate Customer Service- there is nothing wrong with my car. So, I'm still driving a car, that can and will stop at any moment. I warned Porsche corporate that if the next time my car stops for no apparent reason and this leads to an injury or worse, someone at Porsche will be charged with manslaughter. Even though Porsche Corporate knows that these cars are a problem, the company refuses to address this issue and blatantly lies to clients, hoping that no one wants to take on a big corporation. How long will it be, until there is a serious injury or worse happens due to these sudden stops? I have all the communication between myself,orsche corporate and Porsche North Seattle showing the exact dates, when these issues happened, the attempt to fix them, the text message from dealership telling me that there is a transmission issue and lastly the email from Corporate, stating that there are no issues with this car. Please take a look. Thank you.

NHTSA ODI 11725896

The vehicle’s battery module became defective and would not accept or hold a charge. When attempting to charge the vehicle using standard charging equipment, the battery system repeatedly failed to initiate or complete the charging cycle. The vehicle displayed charging error messages and/or failed to respond when connected to a charging source. Despite using properly functioning charging equipment and verified power sources, the battery module would not charge. The issue was diagnosed as a defective battery module. As a result, the vehicle became inoperable due to the inability to recharge the high-voltage battery. This defect created a safety concern because the vehicle could unexpectedly lose available driving range and become disabled without warning. The failure rendered the vehicle unusable until the battery module required repair or replacement.

NHTSA ODI 11721039

The contact owns a 2021 Porsche Taycan. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V732000 (Electrical System) and would like to be removed from the recall distribution list. The local dealer and manufacturer were contacted. The vehicle was repaired.

NHTSA ODI 11693309

The contact owns a 2021 Porsche Taycan. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V732000 (Electrical System); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

NHTSA ODI 11658531

On April 23, 2024, while decelerating gently at a traffic light, I heard a loud “thump” sound from the rear of my 2021 Porsche Taycan. Immediately, the vehicle lost access to the Reverse (R) and Park (P) gears. I was able to slowly coast into a nearby parking lot, but then all gear positions (Drive, Reverse, Neutral, Park) became completely unresponsive. The vehicle was immobilized and had to be towed. At the time of failure, the vehicle had just under 45,000 miles and had received routine maintenance and a recall inspection at a Porsche Center in March 2024. The factory warranty expired only one day earlier, on April 22. Porsche is refusing to cover repairs or provide a loaner vehicle, even though the failure clearly occurred at extremely low mileage and immediately after warranty expiration. The failure pattern matches the symptoms described in TSB #2209 (NHTSA ID: 10210797) for the 2022 Taycan, which identifies a known defect where the vehicle unexpectedly shifts from D or R into N or P without driver input. While my vehicle is a 2021 model, the behavior is nearly identical — sudden loss of drivability, unexpected gear disengagement, and major safety risk in traffic. This incident could have resulted in a serious accident had it happened in moving traffic. I am submitting this complaint in hopes that NHTSA will investigate whether this known transmission defect also affects 2021 Taycan models, and to ensure Porsche takes responsibility for latent safety defects, regardless of narrowly expired warranty status.

NHTSA ODI 11658019

I received a recall notice that my vehicle was affected for a battery cell that needed to be replaced and scheduled a date with Porsche and when I finally took the car in they said it’s not a active recall which seemed odd

NHTSA ODI 11640258

I bought this car a few weeks ago and drove only 300 miles so far. I was pulling out of my neighborhood onto the Main Street, when I turned then started to accelerate I received an error saying engine control error and my car came to a screeching halt. The accelerator stopped working and the car made some loud grinding noises and no functions were working.luckily nobody was behind me. I turned off the vehicle and when I powered it back on everything is working as normal. This vehicle was just serviced at Porsche a few days ago before the event

NHTSA ODI 11628131

Sudden power electrical failure while driving on a city avenue. The car suddenly had no power, the engine goes off, the sterring become very stiff and there was a message saying electrical system error

NHTSA ODI 11624450

Mfgr unable to remedy NHSTA 24V215 Risk of fire is unacceptable to leave unaddressed for this long

NHTSA ODI 11620025

Accelerating away from a stop sign, and going about 25 mph, the car slammed on the brakes, even a couple of ABS jerks, and said “Engine Control Issue; Park in a safe place.” (It might have said Engine Control Error). After stopping, was unable to move the car, as all drive power had been shut off. All instrumentation was still powered up. I then shut off power to car, waited 15 seconds, and car powered up normally and was able to drive normally with no warning indications on instrument panel.

NHTSA ODI 11619339

Sunday September 8 I plugged my Taycan into my charger at approxmately 1PM. Later I went into my garage approximately 3PM to get something, and it was filled with smoke. After extinguishing the fire, I noticed the cause was the PLUG attached to the Porsche charger had caurght fire and melted the outlet which then caught my garage wall on fire. Had I not been home, my house would have caught fire.

NHTSA ODI 11613405

When accelerating the has a sudden loss of power. I get a message to pull off the.road. After turning offf the engine and restarting car begins to function properly again.

NHTSA ODI 11598805

The heater does not work, requires a part change and this is the 2nd time in two years. Only blowing cold air.

NHTSA ODI 11558966

While charging the vehicle at a reduced rate (30 amps out of a 40 amp maximum) there was a thermal event in the outlet box that the Mobile Charger Connect was plugged into. There were no witnesses to the event, but it was later noticed that the wall around the outlet was blackened and one prong of the plug had melted the housing of the plug along with the receptacle. The Mobile Charger Connect had previously shown a high temperature warning, so the operating current was reduced from 40 to 30 amps at the direction of service personnel at the dealership. The Mobile Charger Connect was plugged into the specified NEMA 14-50 receptacle that has been in use for the entire duration of ownership.

NHTSA ODI 11538414

Car died after being on the charger for 8 weeks. Main battery is at 83% but apparently there is a 12v small battery that failed. Car is inoperable. Doors will not open, windows stuck partially down, car will not go into gear, can't be moved.

NHTSA ODI 11514322

On December 29, 2022, the heater unit in the car failed. This caused ice to form on the inside of the car, all windows. Winter in Chicago. Dealer said they are aware of other Tacans having this came issue but there are no parts available and could be 4 to 6 weeks for parts. it is now February 15th and still no parts and the car is unsafe to drive as you can not see out of the windows. If you look on the website in Europe there are reported over 800 of these cars with the same issue and now Audi is having the same issue. These cars are unsafer and should be removed from the roads.

NHTSA ODI 11507742

Several times when driving (3) the vehicle loses all power and stops. Warning error messages are displayed on the dashboard screen ("Electrical system error") and "Engine Control Error" This is a dangerous situation, as the car suddenly just went dead on the middle of the highway. with cars having to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting my vehicle. The vehicle has been in the Porsche dealer once to have this issue rectified, but has happened again twice since that time.

NHTSA ODI 11501045

Spontaneous shutdown of the vehicle while driving. Critical failure of motility while driving. Driving at 50km per hour extremely dangerous as car just shutdown and I had to try to roll off the road but it died so I had to put it in neutral and push it by hand on a busy road. Car has been at the dealer for 3 weeks now. The spontaneous shut occurred and a red light came on.

NHTSA ODI 11496914

While driving my Porsche Taycan 2021 (5000 miles) Nov 4th, 2022, at highway speeds on I-15 to Vegas, the instrument cluster started flashing "Electric System Error" and instructed me to park in safe place immediately and call Roadside Assistance. I had to park on the hard shoulder and wait for a tow truck. It was scary as there were big rigs passing my every 10-20 seconds. Car was towed to the Porsche dealer in Vegas. Upon inspection it was found that the "High Voltage Converter" had malfunctioned and had to be replaced. This is very concerning that a critical EV component can fail in new car, which had done just over 5000 miles. Dealer replaced the component and now the vehicle is running fine but I am very skeptical to take the car out on long drives.

NHTSA ODI 11496955

November 27,2021 Electrical System Failure . Car was parked in a parking lot . RED system failure error . After 30 minutes the car started and I drove it to Town Motors Porsche , Englewood NJ (purchase dealer). They had car for ~ 3 weeks and "everything is fine." July 6th 2022: Identical Electrical Systems failure . Again while car was parked in my garage . Car started on its own several hours later . Drove car to Town Englewood Porsche , Englewood NJ . The car is clearly unsafe and I do not feel comfortable driving this car. I do NOT want to be the first casualty because it fails on a highway . Porsche needs to take ownership . Taycan forum online clearly show that this is an issue with this car .

NHTSA ODI 11472637

Electrical system error message appeared when I turned on the car. I exited and locked the car in an attempt to reset the system. I tried this several times with no success so I attempted to call for a tow. After waiting 20 minutes I tried again to exit the car and lock it. This time when I reentered the car it started and I drove home.

NHTSA ODI 11453560

Got into the car like every morning but car displayed a warning “Electrical System Error, Park vehicle in safe place” Car would not start

NHTSA ODI 11431568

The contact owns a 2021 Porsche Taycan. The contact stated that while driving 20 MPH, the vehicle began to shudder and then stalled as the "electrical system error, park vehicle in a safe place" warning message illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle failed again soon after restart. The contact was able to drive the vehicle to his home. The contact then called the local dealer and the vehicle was towed to the dealer. The next day, the contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V486000 (Engine and Engine Cooling, Electrical System) which was linked to the failure. Despite several attempts to repair the vehicle under the recall, the vehicle was not repaired. The vehicle remained in the dealer possession. The contact was recently informed by the dealer that a German engineer would be sent their location to repair the vehicle. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 1,234.

NHTSA ODI 11429897

The car has 130 miles, right at the dealer parking lot, as I was about to set out a message appeared “ electric system error” I was not able to drive further. If I had been on a freeway this would have been bad.

NHTSA ODI 11427688

On two separate occasions, this vehicle completely lost all electrical power unexpectedly while driving. I pulled over and attempted to restart car with no response. After approximately1-2 minutes, the car spontaneously regained electrical power. One other occasion, the car was fully charged, but was unable to even be accessed (open doors ) The car had to be towed by Porsche dealer for some software update as it had absolutely no power. The car had to be mechanically opened in order to tow.

NHTSA ODI 11424175