Mileage when the problem started
Owner reports
Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2020 Porsche Taycan owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).
There are .recalls.on the Vehicle I had been unaware of and I dropped off my vehicle for exterior buffing while person Buffing vehicle he heard a loud explosion and when he looked the vehicle was up in flames the vehicle burned. There was a Risk of someone getting Harm , Killed and Damages to other vehicles on the property in same lot vehicle was being buffed . Police and Fireman were dispatch to location.
I am writing to bring to your urgent attention a recurring and serious issue with my Porsche Taycan (VIN: [redacted] ). On multiple occasions while driving, the vehicle has suddenly lost all power and displayed the error message: "Engine control error. Stop the car in a safe place." When this occurs, the car becomes completely unresponsive and unable to move forward, posing a significant safety risk, especially when it happens in traffic. I am forced to stop, switch off the vehicle, wait for a couple of minutes, and restart it. The error message disappears after restarting, but the issue continues to recur. This has now happened three times in the past two months. I first brought the vehicle to the dealer after the initial incident, and they recommended a software update. However, after the issue reoccurred and I returned to the dealership, they were unable to retrieve any error codes. …
My car on two separate occasions lost power and took several seconds to recover while fighting it. It would suddenly state "Drive Attention Required" and seemed to hit the brakes hard and ignore my inputs. This occurred twice within a week roughly 3 weeks ago. This could have easily caused an accident as the car begins to slow quickly. The issue was not reproduced by the dealer and they claim it was related to a faulty software update (but they never reproduced or had any diagnostics on the issue so I'm not sure how they could claim that). It has not happened after the third reinstall of the software update but it also didn't happen except those two times when the software was apparently faulty so I still believe it could happen at any time. …
While driving the vehicle, an error message (Engine Control Error) will pop up. The car will come to an immediate stop...forcing the driver to shut off car and restart it. This has happened multiple times and in one instance occurred on the highway. It almost caused a catastrophic accident as the car came to an abrupt stop in the middle lane of the highway. I've taken the car to the dealership multiple times and they have not been able to fix it. I've read many Taycan message board posts and it seems like this is a common issue amongst multiple years of Taycans. This is a serious safety issue and a recall should be issued with a remedy for this. Due to this, I cannot drive the car on the highway as I'm scared of it happening randomly. This is a known issue and one that should be recalled and handled appropriately by Porsche.
While driving at approximately 40mph, a red message suddenly appeared in the dashboard saying "Engine Control Error- Park vehicle in a Safe Place". Simultaneously, the car became unresponsive - for example, pressing the gas pedal had no effect. I was able to brake and drift to the side of the road, but the car kind of bumpily ground to halt, feeling almost as if I had a flat tire (which I did not). Once I shut off the car and restarted, it ran again but had that issue occurred at a high speed or on a busier roadway, a serious accident was possible. I just recently had the car serviced to do a major upgrade the software and have seen others posting in forums about this serious issue. I never had this issue prior to the software update and have driven the car over 5000 miles.
I was driving 30 mph in drive mode on westheimer rd when the car suddenly emergency braked and lost all power i went from 30 to 0 in about a second. Yes the car is available for inspection on request. The car had 180 miles of battery power. The car behind me slammed their brakes on and nearly slammed into the rear of the car. The red warning light came on "Electrical System Error park vehicle in a safe place". There was absolutely no warning before this occurred. I am afraid for my life with this car i nearly got into an accident at 30 mph let alone if i was on the highway i could have easily died. This problem has been reported with thousands of porsche taycans. The car has been at the porsche dealership for a week so far where they are reporting electrical faults in the car.
While driving in a particularly curved section of highway 1 the vehicle lost all power and control. I had to wrestle the vehicle to the side of the road and narrowly avoided a cliff face off into the ocean. My entire family was in the car and could have been killed. This was after Porsche was unable to fix safety systems like my active cruise control and lane keep assist which were bugging out and trying to take over control of the car. I towed it to Porsche who attempted to address the problem and claimed it was fixed with a patch. There is no way to validate the work. Porsche did not communicate during the issue and offered little in the way of resolution.
The safety risk of having the car's motor completely lose power on the road/highway is high, as you are then left powerless. We have not reproduced this issue ourselves. Our local Porsche dealer has looked at it and said it was a "one off" type of malfunction and could not find any issue with the car when we brought it in. The car shut off while driving and gave a "Motor control error." The car's interior electronics stayed on, but the car had no drive power at all. There were no warning signs or problems prior to this issue occurring
During my ownership, the vehicle experienced multiple dangerous failures. It suddenly lost power while driving with my 2 year old child onboard, and on another occasion the steering wheel locked for several seconds on the freeway. The car has had numerous recalls, and the dealer later confirmed an EV motor failure but offered no buyback. These defects created serious safety risks and caused significant financial loss, which I believe requires NHTSA's attention.
While driving normally on a highway, the car suddenly reported "Electrical System Error, Stop vehicle in a safe place", which is followed by a complete loss of power, even pressed on acceleration pedal. I immediately pulled over to the side of the highway, the car slowed down quickly and stopped. The car was unable to restart ever since. After 1-2 hours, the vehicle's power was completely lost.
Related recalls
Engine and engine cooling › Engine › Engine control module (ECU/ECM) › Software
Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (Porsche) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Taycan Turbo, Taycan Turbo S, Taycan 4S, 2021 Taycan, Taycan Cross Turismo, Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo, Taycan 4S Cross Turismo, and Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo vehicles.
Remedy: Dealers will reprogram the power electronics and the engine control unit, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed July 30, 2021. Owners may contact Porsche customer service at 1-800-767-7243.
Engine complaints in other Taycan years
Frequently asked questions
How common are engine problems on the 2020 Porsche Taycan?
NHTSA has 22 complaints about the engine & cooling of the 2020 Porsche Taycan, 24% of the model year's 92 complaints.
Is there a recall for 2020 Porsche Taycan engine problems?
Yes — NHTSA recall 21V-486 (software, Jun 29, 2021). Recall repairs are free at authorized dealers.
At what mileage do 2020 Porsche Taycan engine problems start?
Half of the complaints with a recorded mileage happened before about 4,000 miles, and 100% before 25,000 miles.
Is it dangerous?
Owners linked 0 crashes, 1 fire and 0 injuries to engine & cooling problems on this model year. If you notice symptoms, have the car checked before driving further.
Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — owner complaints through October 20, 2026, recalls and defect investigations; fuel economy from the EPA. Complaints are unverified reports and are not proof of a defect. How we rate model years.