FYI: Main Battery Replacement Needed!!!

[evanevery]

BTW - Replacement Battery Part Number is different than the original (I asked my rep). So Porsche may have recognized that improvements were necessary... Rep is anticipating that car will be back in service mid-next week...

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[Genau]

BTW - Replacement Battery Part Number is different than the original (I asked my rep). So Porsche may have recognized that improvements were necessary... Rep is anticipating that car will be back in service mid-next week...

Porsche implemented new battery cell chemistry for model year 2021. See the technical service bulletin that @TomP linked in his post:

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/taycan-4s-2020-battery-failure.5748/post-81694​

 

[evanevery]

Nice! Thanks!

 

[evanevery]

{Originally posted this update to this saga in the "other" (conspiracy) thread... Should have done it here to keep a running account of my complete experience...}

Finally got my car back Yesterday. (The line item on the battery alone was $54K!)

The Battery was replaced with a newer battery (updated part number) which apparently has a upgraded battery chemistry. (Yay!)

Also, pretty curious that Porsche just announced an upgraded onboard charger for the Taycan. Curiously, this would seem to lend credence to the original claim (from the "Porsche Insider") that the lower power onboard charger was a main cause of these battery issues. ...and why the charger was upgraded on the Audi ETron GT when they started using the same platform.

New AC on-board charger upgrade for the Porsche Taycan dramatically reduces charging times - Porsche Newsroom USA

I have scheduled the onboard battery charger upgrade for Feb 7 as I will be out of the country for a couple of weeks at that time (Ice Racing in Sweden with BMW). The dealer gave me a quote (inc labor) of just under $5K. Hopefully, between the upgraded battery chemistry and the improved charger, I will never have this issue again...

If something relevant pops up with the charger upgrade I'll report it here as well....

 

[SergeyIndy]

I wonder if you can help me understand what on-board charger are you referring to. My factory build is scheduled for March and I have no need for the Optional high powered on-board charger option below. Are you saying that having it, improves main battery charging and preventing premature failure since it has upgraded hardware even though I have no plans of using it or no way of using it since I do not have a 100Amp circuit to benefit.

19.2 kW On-Board Charger
$1,680
Optional On-Board AC Charger to increase maximum charging power when charging with alternating current (AC) up to 19.2 kW and to shorten the charging time.

 

[daveo4EV]

I wonder if you can help me understand what on-board charger are you referring to. My factory build is scheduled for March and I have no need for the Optional high powered on-board charger option below. Are you saying that having it, improves main battery charging and preventing premature failure since it has upgraded hardware even though I have no plans of using it or no way of using it since I do not have a 100Amp circuit to benefit.

19.2 kW On-Board Charger
$1,680
Optional On-Board AC Charger to increase maximum charging power when charging with alternating current (AC) up to 19.2 kW and to shorten the charging time.

8 year/100,000 mile warranty on the battery - if there is a problem with the onboard charger that causes a battery failure that's on Porsche to resolve under warranty - I wouldn't get the 19.2 kW charger unless you have concrete plans (and knowledge) of 100/80 amp EVSE's you plan to use regularly

also nothing says Porsche has not resolved any issues with the standard 11 kW/48 amp onboard charger…I highly doubt Porsche is shipping 11 kW/48 amp charger that will cause them to have known warranty claims that come out of their pocket…(I however have no doubt they would willing ship crap to customers that cause money to come out of the customer's pocket - but that's not the case here).

also there is no data/evidence to indicate even the 'flawed' 11 kW/48 amp charger is causing wide spread in-warranty failures.

I'd only get the option if you want the option for what it accomplishes (possible 19.2 kW max charge rate) - I would not get the option because it might avoid some low percentage in-warranty failure that honestly is only speculation.

 

[Archimedes]

You have slanted your view to support your position. There are still motors form 2014 and 2015 that have not failed, many in fact. You will say nothing short of outright fantasy to support your post's view - EVERY SINGLE MOTOR. Trust me you don't want to get into a debate over this, I have way more knowledge and experience in this area. PLEASE, let this not be another hijacked thread, I will not respond to any further post from you on this subject.

I didn’t say every motor failed. I said every motor had the same finger follower issue and was prone to failure. And the number of motors that have actually failed was way higher than Porsche’s statistical expectations. It’s an entirely different situation with the GT4, which had a defective part on a small number of motors. I’m well aware of both situations, as I’ve followed them both closely. One of the reasons I passed on buying the .1 GT3 and ordered a .2.

 

[CharlesR]

{Originally posted this update to this saga in the "other" (conspiracy) thread... Should have done it here to keep a running account of my complete experience...}

Finally got my car back Yesterday. (The line item on the battery alone was $54K!)

The Battery was replaced with a newer battery (updated part number) which apparently has a upgraded battery chemistry. (Yay!)

Also, pretty curious that Porsche just announced an upgraded onboard charger for the Taycan. Curiously, this would seem to lend credence to the original claim (from the "Porsche Insider") that the lower power onboard charger was a main cause of these battery issues. ...and why the charger was upgraded on the Audi ETron GT when they started using the same platform.

New AC on-board charger upgrade for the Porsche Taycan dramatically reduces charging times - Porsche Newsroom USA

I have scheduled the onboard battery charger upgrade for Feb 7 as I will be out of the country for a couple of weeks at that time (Ice Racing in Sweden with BMW). The dealer gave me a quote (inc labor) of just under $5K. Hopefully, between the upgraded battery chemistry and the improved charger, I will never have this issue again...

If something relevant pops up with the charger upgrade I'll report it here as well....

My 2020 4S with 13K miles just displayed the same failure yesterday. Dealer informed me today that it’s a main battery failure and it will be 60-90 days for the repair. I was also told that Regional Porsche Techs perform the repair and my dealership is 10th in line.

 

[daveo4EV]

even though it's a pain in the ass - a new battery 3 years into the vehicle's ownership with a new chemistry isn't a horrible outcome - sympathies for the wait time for the repair.

 

[whitex]

The irony of claiming that the high power US charger is better for the battery is that in EU it’s the higher power charger that has had problems, especially when charging at 1 phase at 7KW. Just ask @tigerbalm how many he had replaced. That actually was the only known charger issue (porsche even recommended not charging above 6KW on single phase) and likely the source of this FUD.

 

[tigerbalm]

The irony of claiming that the high power US charger is better for the battery is that in EU it’s the higher power charger that has had problems, especially when charging at 1 phase at 7KW. Just ask @tigerbalm how many he had replaced. That actually was the only known charger issue (porsche even recommended not charging above 6KW on single phase) and likely the source of this FUD.

?

And to answer the question: I had three failures of the 22 kW AC OBC (on-board charger) over one and a half years. Meaning the car is now on its fourth charger hardware.

When I had my last charger replacement, Porsche (both my Porsche Centre and Porsche AG, who were involved at that stage) said, we cannot guarantee it won't happen again. There is nothing massively different about the latest charger we've installed and any of the others. However, we are working on a permanent fix.

I had been waiting on a Turbo S allocation at the time – so we did a deal to get me into that and I would obviously leave the 22 kW AC option off the new car. This was me taking a leap of faith and Porsche taking everything into consideration to make the deal work.

In the meantime, Porsche fixed the 22 kW AC option with a software fix (as part of the big update) – that really worked – that 4th charger is still in the car (and with its new owner) and my confidence in the fix was such that I ended up optioning it back into the new Turbo S order which I just recently received.

Porsche AG confirmed to me that when on single-phase power source, there was a problem with this particular 3-phase charger and it took longer to detect/resolve partly because single-phase residential AC is rarer in Northern Europe then it is on the islands of UK and Ireland.

I'm really happy they fixed it to such an extent that my 4S became a rock-solid car and I could option back in the 22 kW charger into my Turbo S – as its an option that still offers value in my local market: rural Ireland which has 1000's of public 22 kW chargers in almost every small town.

It took them a while to get there, but get there they did.

I always found it amusing that the damn chargers were also Made in (rural) Ireland, in a town called Mallow, in Co Cork by a German company called Kostal.

Sometimes I was waiting weeks for them to get shipped from the factory in Ireland, to the central stores in Germany and then back to Dublin, Ireland! And they can't go by air freight because they contain an explosive fuse in them.

They go into a lot of cars – not just VW either. But in this case it was VW/Porsche supplied software the caused the issue – there was nothing wrong with the physical hardware – just how they were being controlled.

And it had nothing to do with batteries. Or Audi for that matter.

 

[Donlam]

I had a long thinking on spec'd 22kw charger in or not. It does add more weight and failure might occur but handy to have it spec'd.

 

[whitex]

I had a long thinking on spec'd 22kw charger in or not. It does add more weight and failure might occur but handy to have it spec'd.

Did you ever find how much weight it adds? The charger itself probably not much (IIRC it is just few extra power transistors that get populated on a circuit board inside the charger). The wiring harness needs to handle higher current, so most of the weight will probably come from there, unless Porsche ships the larger harness on all cars for some reason.

 

[Donlam]

About 24-25 kg different approx 22kw 31 kg vs 11kw is only 6kg excl. thicker socket and cables. I guess most from the larger heat release elements and casing.

 

[Raphie]

Wow! Didn’t know that, that’s a lot of weight to carry around.

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