Underbody Protection Panel damaged. Batteries and coolant lines need inspection. $72.5K replacement & labor cost. Dealership is Tom Wood in Indiana

[whitex]

Always been the case, the tray is the HV battery - the potential Core replacement is the batteries I'm assuming

I would ask them what is the core charge, i.e. what parts exactly do you get to keep if they refuse the core.

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[whitex]

Curious about this, I found an earlier post:
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/pedestrian-protection-mechanism.17788/

Not an option in US AFAIK.

 

[whitex]

We all drive a car that is one rock or speed bump from being totaled.

Porsche never said what are the worst case consequences of a 3.33mm dent. However, if those consequences are car goes up in flames, IANAL but IMO they would be liable for damages, both because not every driver has their underbody checked before and after every drive, but also because it would mean they did not do enough per safety standards such as ISO26262. Toyota got nailed for millions of dollars after their unintended acceleration issue, even though it was never proven in court that they caused it - the only thing proven in court was they didn't design for what's referred to as "random faults" which, should they occur, should fail safely. So in this case, the Porsche battery should simply either limit its performance, or even completely shut down if the cooling is affected. Failed cooling should under no circumstances cause a fire, other than maybe if you put the battery into a fire (drive it over a bonfire?).

I suspect (but have not verified) that a 3.33mm gauge would either not affect the battery at all, or it would eventually cause the batter to fail (safely, i.e. disable itself at worst). A battery that shuts off can be a danger of course, imagine getting stuck in the middle of the day in Death Valley, but any car failure would cause the same (famous electrical red circle of death, or even car not recognizing the key).

 

[Fish Fingers]

How many claims like this before insuring a Taycan becomes a major issue?

Insurance companies do actually like to make a profit, not a loss amazingly.

Just think how many people's typical annual insurance premiums it will take to make up just this one claim? 100?

If these claims become common place, I see 3 possible insurer outcomes;

1. Soaring premiums
2. Withdrawal from market
3. Battery exclusions

So the glib comment from Porsche along the lines of 'hey it's OK, it's covered by your insurance' means it's fine for them...... but the rest of us ultimately pick up the tab.

It does matter. It's pointless having a shiny new Taycan sat in the garage if its uninsureable.

It brings to mind trying to insure a Sierra Cosworth in the UK in the 80s.
Or trying to insure an 18 year old.
Or a Range Rover in London.

If this type of damage becomes common place - we will very quickly all have a problem. And a car with zero used value.

 

[rim23]

How many claims like this before insuring a Taycan becomes a major issue?

Insurance companies do actually like to make a profit, not a loss amazingly.

Just think how many people's typical annual insurance premiums it will take to make up just this one claim? 100?

If these claims become common place, I see 3 possible insurer outcomes;

1. Soaring premiums
2. Withdrawal from market
3. Battery exclusions

So the glib comment from Porsche along the lines of 'hey it's OK, it's covered by your insurance' means it's fine for them...... but the rest of us ultimately pick up the tab.

It does matter. It's pointless having a shiny new Taycan sat in the garage if its uninsureable.

It brings to mind trying to insure a Sierra Cosworth in the UK in the 80s.
Or trying to insure an 18 year old.
Or a Range Rover in London.

If this type of damage becomes common place - we will very quickly all have a problem. And a car with zero used value.

One funny story - we had a case in Finland when insurance paid for a new battery. It was a piece of news in a newspaper. The insurance company stopped insuring Taycans in the beginning of this year. Later, they “found a solution” with Porsche… you have to buy a new car or a CPO only from Porsche to get insurance from that insurance company, which is the biggest one in the market. What a great solution!

 

[whitex]

How many claims like this before insuring a Taycan becomes a major issue?

I realize you might have meant this to be a rhetorical question, but there is a numerical answer to this, as a ratio of this type of claim to insured cars.

Paging any actuaries in the audience to answer this question.

 

[Jasper4S]

Maybe a bit harsh. Porsche set a threshold of 3mm. You went over it, so no additional data is needed to prove that it needs to replaced.

That said; it is ridiculous that everything needs to be replaced, and that your vehicle is taking hostage by the dealer. I have a really bad feeling about the way the dealer plays with numbers. 70k became 50k, shipment was 5k, all of the sudden 0$. You can fight that, but you can’t fight the threshold. Even if it is just 0,33mm over the threshold. Over is over.

 

[D00notD00d]

Maybe a bit harsh. Porsche set a threshold of 3mm. You went over it, so no additional data is needed to prove that it needs to replaced.

That said; it is ridiculous that everything needs to be replaced, and that your vehicle is taking hostage by the dealer. I have a really bad feeling about the way the dealer plays with numbers. 70k became 50k, shipment was 5k, all of the sudden 0$. You can fight that, but you can’t fight the threshold. Even if it is just 0,33mm over the threshold. Over is over.

Regardless of the measurement, the dealer diagnosis is that a battery cooling pipe has been squashed. Maybe not enough to block operation, but a risk to operation/fire/warranty.

Repeating myself, the design tolerance here is insufficient for the real world.(5” ground clearance plus 3mm steel protection plate). Many Taycan’s will have been dragged on to low loaders, some without being in Jack mode - could that be a factor?

As worrying as this is, for context (sanity) allegedly 150k Taycans have been produced. There are a handful of incidents reported here by the minority of English speaking owners that use this forum. I’m aware of one UK incident that isn’t referenced here. And many will undoubtedly be riding around with damaged protection plates with no symptoms so far. These won’t be found until a dealer needs to look - battery recalls and failures. This may become a larger test for Porsche Customer Service and the manufacturer.

The example in this case involves a dealer that has made a bad situation much, much worse and an owner who hasn’t left the fix/write off negotiation to the Insurance Company. Most Porsche owners care about their cars/their investment. Some will get fixed without a ripple.. Over time, more incidents will undoubtedly surface, potentially affecting insurance risk and residual values. But 4 years in, in context of the evidence, the risk likelihood seems v. Low?

The 2025 model has switched from a steel plate to a composite. Apparently other thermal management changes have occurred. I wonder if either of those has improved protection?

Happy to be persuaded by more evidence.

 

[Caraholic]

What amazes me is Porsche said the batteries are repairable. However this only seems the case when Porsche has to pay for it. My battery had to have 12 cell modules replaced in lieu of a new battery. However here the insurance is paying not Porsche so the entire battery needs replaced. Instead of it actually being inspected and repaired.

Really think it’s time to reach out to a news outlet and get this information spread.

 

[jkoya]

How many claims like this before insuring a Taycan becomes a major issue?

Insurance companies do actually like to make a profit, not a loss amazingly.

Just think how many people's typical annual insurance premiums it will take to make up just this one claim? 100?

If these claims become common place, I see 3 possible insurer outcomes;

1. Soaring premiums
2. Withdrawal from market
3. Battery exclusions

I just got my insurance renewal cost and the comprehensive portion of the policy more than doubled - from $845/year to $1,711/year. I called our insurance (AAA - CSAA) and the reason I was given was the rising cost in parts and repair bills. This is for a Taycan 4 CT. Watching this thread makes me think I should have bought a 911 instead....

 

[Uknown]

What amazes me is Porsche said the batteries are repairable. However this only seems the case when Porsche has to pay for it. My battery had to have 12 cell modules replaced in lieu of a new battery. However here the insurance is paying not Porsche so the entire battery needs replaced. Instead of it actually being inspected and repaired.

Really think it’s time to reach out to a news outlet and get this information spread.

Yes to this!

There problem isn’t enough volume or interest for Porsche to care it seems.

Their marketing materials clearly show and sell this as repairable. The latest 2 recalls around the battery are proof they will go to great lengths and cost in time to the owner to repair as cheap as possible.

The customer experience seems awful as well, but on par with crappy dealers and manufacturers. There is plenty of room for the dealer or Porsche to shine and/or just be curious about their products, design and trying to take care of the customer despite external damage. Porsche not finding some room to be more transparent or deal with a private discount IMO is short sighted business but not surprising. Maybe dealers /Porsche behave the same way on a big price tag repair on a 911.

It is true there is damage. Unfortunately the lack of clarity on what caused it, or why it wasn’t actually impacting operation of the vehicle or battery or what a car owner or insurance company can expect the tolerance to be able to withstand and what testing Porsche did makes it impossible to accurately determine the risk in daily use IMO. The default posture will eventually be assume it is very fragile and a scratch requires replacement or totaling the car. As an example my MY20 4S would be totaled from this at this stage. Unfortunately I doubt Porsche cares about this enough to address it or communicate why owners/insurance/banks shouldn’t worry.

Love the car, was hoping a lot more from the company as far as customer experiences go at this level of spending.

 

[Maelstrom]

I think the main point of this isn't so much the effectiveness of the protection plate but the fact there was no lights/errors at all and that if the car hadn't gone in for warranty work then I'd be none the wiser.
For me the main issue is the fragility of those cooling lines and the apparent lack of sensors etc. for them so they can identify if the lines are damaged. They seem to be treating this as a very expensive consumable item. There is a chance that the lines aren't damaged but they don't seem to be able to provide any data either way.
The blanket statement of >3mm replace irrespective isn't sitting right with me

 

[Maelstrom]

Got this from the PCNA CSR this morning:

Thank you for your email and photos. The Porsche Center has performed thorough diagnostics and determined that a battery replacement and a new underbody panel is needed due to external influenced damage.

I pointed out that I have requested said diagnostic data and, to date, received diddly squat!
She has now emailed Tom Wood asking for the data on my behalf

 

[SergeyIndy]

Got this from the PCNA CSR this morning:

Thank you for your email and photos. The Porsche Center has performed thorough diagnostics and determined that a battery replacement and a new underbody panel is needed due to external influenced damage.

I pointed out that I have requested said diagnostic data and, to date, received diddly squat!
She has now emailed Tom Wood asking for the data on my behalf

This is a different turn of events in my view, meaning that just exceeding 3mm on the underbody panel is not enough to call for battery replacement. Evidently, there is some "thorough diagnostics" data somewhere that determined what needs to be replaced.

 

[Tooney]

Thread 11 days ago in Taycan reddit: UK owner took his Taycan in for service for charging port impaired error. Dealer said 5 mm dent in underbody prevented them from proceeding with repair.
Thread title: Charging port impaired

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