Sudden standstill: Porsche starts recall for the Taycan electric car

The Porsche Taycan has to go to the workshop. Because a software problem means that the electric car can simply switch off, a corresponding update is necessary. And the manufacturer doesn’t want to just play that over the air interface.

The Porsche Taycan has to go to the workshop worldwide because of a recall.

Bitter pill for Germany’s flagship electric car. The Porsche Taycan has to face a voluntary recall program because the vehicle can simply go out while driving without prior warning or error message. This can be found in consistent media reports. Almost all of the Porsche Taycan and Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo models delivered worldwide are said to be affected .

PORSCHE TAYCAN HAS A SOFTWARE PROBLEM

In terms of numbers, this means that around 43,000 vehicles worldwide have to go to the workshop for safety reasons; around 3,400 models in Germany alone. The model years 2020 and 2021 are affected. Porsche’s goal is likely to be able to fix the problem with a software update. Because defective software was identified as the cause of a possible loss of drive power.

According to a report by “Spiegel Online” , details of the difficulties with the software have already been identified. Accordingly, there could be communication problems between the pulse-controlled inverters and the electric machines in the car. This makes it possible for the motors to switch off and the car to roll out. According to Porsche, however, neither the brakes nor the steering are affected by the problems. The car remains controllable and safety systems such as ABS and ESP are reportedly not stopping.

Fortunately, the identified software problems do not mean that the affected Porsche Taycan electric cars can no longer be used for a longer period of time. As a rule, it should be sufficient to switch the car off and on again in order to be able to continue driving. However, this does not solve the actual problem and can occur again and again. A visit to the workshop with affected vehicles is therefore necessary.

NO UPDATE “OVER THE AIR”

A spokesman for Porsche told “Spiegel Online” that the error was currently “in 0.3 percent of all cars that could be affected.” That is why Porsche refrains from calling customers who generally do not have the Porsche Taycan move more. The necessary update of the car software is not carried out remotely because calibrations are necessary to eliminate the error.

According to the manufacturer, no personal injuries have yet been recorded due to the identified software problem. Porsche itself claims to have discovered the error during internal tests. However, customer complaints have also been heard from the USA since January of this year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) became active accordingly . There it also says that it was not always possible to restart the affected vehicles in order to continue the journey.