A Charging Problem with My Taycan

My beloved Taycan had its first major problem.

One evening, I got home in the Taycan and plugged in my usual 200-volt home charger. The next morning, I got in and realized the battery hadn’t charged at all.

“Wait, did I not plug the charging cable in properly?” I wondered. I drove the Taycan to work as usual that day and tried charging again when I got home that evening. This time, I made sure the cable was connected securely—but an error appeared on the charger.

The Taycan’s charging display showed an error, too.

I told my husband when I got home, and he checked both the Taycan and the charger right away. But no matter how many times we tried, we couldn’t tell whether “the charger had failed or there was a problem with the Taycan itself.” The charger is a genuine Porsche unit, but it’s an older one I bought on Yahoo! Auctions for a 970-generation Panamera Hybrid.

Not knowing what was wrong made it hard to settle in for the night, so later that evening we headed to a coin-operated parking lot with a standard charging station.

If the Taycan showed an error there, we’d know the problem was with the car. If it charged normally, the home charger was at fault.

To our surprise, there weren’t many nearby standard charging stations open late at night. We drove about 20 minutes to a coin-operated lot with one, parked, and plugged in the cable.

If it charged without a problem, that would mean our home charger had failed. If the Taycan displayed a charging error, the problem would be with the car.

I nervously checked the charging status…and sure enough, the Taycan displayed a charging error.

Oh no…so the problem really was with the Taycan.

Once we’d confirmed that, we paid the parking fee for all of two or three minutes of charging (ha!) and headed home.

Replacing a Taycan Component

The next morning, I called the Porsche Center, and they arranged to inspect the Taycan that same day.

One stroke of luck was that the battery still had about 50% charge, so I was able to drive the Taycan to the Porsche Center under its own power.

When I arrived, the service advisor said, “A reset might fix it.” I figured it was probably a minor fault that could be cleared that way. But about 30 minutes later, I was told that “the reset didn’t solve the problem, and it would take more time to identify the cause.”

I’d brought my laptop, so I settled in to get some work done. About an hour later…

The service advisor came over and explained: “There’s an error in one of the Taycan’s onboard computers, and the entire component needs to be replaced.”

Wow!!!

The Taycan’s 800-volt system relies on precise electronic controls across many areas, including voltage and temperature, to prevent malfunctions from causing the car to behave unpredictably. To a layperson, an EV might look like a fairly simple machine, but in reality, it’s an extremely complex system.

They couldn’t pinpoint the cause, but some kind of fault had occurred and the computer itself had stopped starting up.

I asked, “Could this have happened because I wasn’t charging it properly?” They didn’t think that was the case, which was a relief (ha!).

The replacement part had to be ordered from Porsche in Germany—a familiar Porsche ownership experience, apparently. I was told it would take around two weeks to arrive, followed by about a week for the replacement work, for an estimated total repair time of three weeks.

I had to pick up my child from kindergarten that day, so I borrowed a loaner car and headed home. Then, just yesterday, the Porsche Center called to say they had an update on the parts order.

The wait is longer than we first expected: the part is now estimated to take three weeks to arrive, and with the work afterward, the Taycan is likely to be in the shop for just under a month.

That’s quite a long stay at the shop…
Still, these things happen.

The replacement was covered at no charge because the car was still under warranty. The Porsche Center will also take care of a few other recall items at the same time.

Why a Warranty Matters

This experience reminded me just how important a warranty is. When you’ve made such a significant purchase, having the peace of mind that you’re covered if something goes wrong is invaluable.

I hadn’t heard many stories about major Taycan problems from other owners, but unexpected issues can happen from time to time. With so much cutting-edge technology packed into the car, it’s only natural that the systems are complex—and that faults can occur.

Well, sometimes these things happen. I’ll try to take it in stride and enjoy many more years of Porsche ownership with my beloved Taycan.