Porsche Taycan power loss sparks global recall

If you’re one of the almost 400 Porsche Taycan owners in Australia, you may soon be notified of a voluntary recall from the German sports car-maker to fix a software issue that has resulted in a total loss of vehicle power for several US drivers.

In a statement released from its German headquarters, the company said: “Porsche is reviewing and updating the software for the power electronics and the engine control unit on approximately 43,000 units of Taycan and Taycan Cross Turismo vehicles from the 2020 to 2021 model years, of which about 3400 are in Germany.”

According to Porsche, there’s a possibility that “in certain instances a shutdown of the powertrain, resulting in loss of motive power, may be triggered incorrectly and sporadically”.

To fix the issue, a software update will be installed at an authorised Porsche service department.

The company says that owners of affected Taycan EVs “can continue to use them and will be contacted directly by their responsible Porsche partner”.

“A workshop appointment that will be free of charge should take place as soon as possible and the software update will take about an hour,” said Porsche.

New cars and those already in dealerships will be updated with the new software.

Porsche Cars Australia has been contacted for clarification. It’s understood the Taycan’s over-the-air software updating system cannot be used to facilitate the update required to fix the EV’s potential power-loss issue.

This was also the case with a recent Porsche Taycan software upgrade, which unlocked more performance.

In that case, owners were required to return their vehicles to the dealership because drive and transmission components had to be disabled by a technician and recalibrated.

A total of 369 examples of the Porsche Taycan had been sold in Australia to the end of June 2021.