2021 Porsche Taycan Electrical Problems

Which parts fail

• Propulsion system
  10
• Propulsion system › Charging › Cable/cord › Accessory
  1

Components named in complaints (battery, alternator, wiring, ignition, instrument cluster, infotainment).

Mileage when the problem started

• Under 25k
  3100%
• 25k–50k
  00%
• 50k–75k
  00%
• 75k–100k
  00%
• 100k–150k
  00%
• 150k+
  00%

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2021 Porsche Taycan owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

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. …

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.

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.

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. …

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). …

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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/

Related recalls

NHTSA investigations

Electrical complaints in other Taycan years