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Porsche Taycan Investigations

NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation records

PE21013ClosedPE

Loss of Motive Power

In May 2021, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE) of complaints received alleging a loss of motive power while in motion at any speed with no prior warning to the driver in the 2020-2021 model year (MY) Porsche Taycan electric vehicles. ODI had received 9 Vehicle Owner Questionnaires (VOQs) and several field reports. All complaints alleged that a loss of motive power occurred without warning and error messages about a battery fault displayed during or after the vehicle stalled.In the subject vehicles, a pulse-controlled inverter is mounted on each of the two drive modules on the front and rear axles. The software designed to continuously monitor end-to-end communication between the safety-related electronic control units (ECUs) in the vehicle can, in certain instances, incorrectly and sporadically detect a potentially faulty communication, set an error memory entry, and trigger a shutdown of the power train, resulting in loss of motive power. If this occurs, the affected vehicles display the warning message ?Motor control error. Stop vehicle in a safe place in the instrument cluster.Porsche has corrected the software malfunction in producti

Opened: 5/17/2021Last activity: 12/23/2021

About NHTSA Investigations

NHTSA investigations include Preliminary Evaluations (PE), Engineering Analyses (EA), Defect Petitions (DP), and Audit Queries (AQ). Investigations may lead to recalls if defects are confirmed. An open investigation means NHTSA is actively examining the issue.