Friday, July 2nd, 2021
43,000 cars worldwide affected
Porsche is recalling the Taycan e-model
The Taycan is Porsche’s first e-car and a flagship of the Stuttgart-based company. But almost all models of the sports car that have been delivered to date have to go to the workshop. There could be problems with the drive. Thousands of vehicles in Germany are also affected.
Because of a possible loss of drive power, Porsche is calling 43,000 electric Taycan vehicles back to the workshop as a precautionary measure. That is all units of the model that came onto the market last year that were produced and delivered up to June. The Volkswagen subsidiary in Stuttgart announced that there was a possibility that the affected vehicles could incorrectly and sporadically switch off the drive in certain cases.
The vehicle can then roll out and the driver can continue to brake. So far there have been no accidents or property damage. According to the company, the software for the power electronics and the engine control unit must be checked and updated in the workshop. This takes about an hour.
The electric motor can fail at full speed, so that, for example, at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, the vehicle rolls out within 90 seconds, as the responsible Porsche project manager Klaus Rechberger explained in a press conference. After restarting the engine, the car is roadworthy again. The malfunction was noticed in around 130 vehicles, so it is not a mass phenomenon, added Rechberger.
First complaints in mid-May
Since this is the flagship model from Porsche for the e-car age, the Volkswagen subsidiary, unlike in the industry, informed itself in advance about the upcoming official recall orders. The incidents were first put on record in mid-May at the US traffic safety authority NHTSA. In response to complaints from customers, she initiated a preliminary investigation. According to Porsche, the software update of the control unit cannot yet be installed remotely via the Internet.
With the later introduced sister model Audi e-tron GT, which uses the same component, there were no complaints from customers, as an Audi spokesman explained. The software was already up to date on all vehicles delivered in America. More than half of the affected cars in the other markets have already been put in order and a three-digit number still needs to be processed.
Around 3,400 cars are being recalled in Germany. The campaign by the sports car manufacturer affects vehicles of the Taycan and Taycan Cross Turismo model years from 2020 to 2021. The error has now been corrected. The Taycan was the first e-Porsche and was first presented to the public in September 2019.
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