2020 PORSCHE TAYCAN Engine Problems

Made a turn into a street and driving at slow pace (about 20mph) and the vehicle suddenly shuddered and came to complete stop and died in the middle of the road. I had no time to pull over. No warning. It just happened. Fortunately, no oncoming or cars behind me. There was a red dash board warning “Engine Control Error”. I turned off the vehicle and restarted.

The vehicle experiences a sudden and dangerous malfunction while driving. Without any prior warning, the vehicle begins to shake and then immediately brakes on its own, coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of traffic. Only after the vehicle has already braked and shut down does an “Engine Control Error” message appear on the display. There is no advance alert and no time for the driver to react or move out of traffic. This is exceptionally concerning especially as this vehicle was being used a primary mode of transportation for my 2 young toddlers who were present in the vehicle during these failures. The vehicle was purchased directly from Porsche as a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle in June 2025, and was represented by Porsche as having passed all safety and mechanical inspections at the time of purchase. Despite this, the vehicle has continued to experience catastrophic failures. Following the initial shutdown incident, the vehicle was towed to Porsche for service on September 2. Porsche stated that the issue had been repaired and assured that the vehicle was safe to operate. However, on September 29, the same failure occurred again. The vehicle shook, abruptly braked in active traffic, shut itself down, and only then displayed the engine control failure message. This shows that the underlying defect was not corrected and continues to pose a serious safety hazard. The problem is severe, unpredictable, and reproducible. It places the driver, passengers, and surrounding motorists at immediate risk because the vehicle becomes immobilized in traffic with no prior warning and no ability to pull over safely. The vehicle has been inspected by Porsche technicians, but the root cause remains unknown, and Porsche has been unable to provide a successful repair or assurance of safety. This pattern strongly indicates a critical defect in the engine control or power-management system that renders the vehicle unsafe for public road use.

During my ownership, the vehicle experienced multiple dangerous failures. It suddenly lost power while driving with my 2‑year‑old child onboard, and on another occasion the steering wheel locked for several seconds on the freeway. The car has had numerous recalls, and the dealer later confirmed an EV motor failure but offered no buyback. These defects created serious safety risks and caused significant financial loss, which I believe requires NHTSA’s attention.

I am writing to bring to your urgent attention a recurring and serious issue with my Porsche Taycan (VIN: [XXX] ). On multiple occasions while driving, the vehicle has suddenly lost all power and displayed the error message: "Engine control error. Stop the car in a safe place." When this occurs, the car becomes completely unresponsive and unable to move forward, posing a significant safety risk, especially when it happens in traffic. I am forced to stop, switch off the vehicle, wait for a couple of minutes, and restart it. The error message disappears after restarting, but the issue continues to recur. This has now happened three times in the past two months. I first brought the vehicle to the dealer after the initial incident, and they recommended a software update. However, after the issue reoccurred and I returned to the dealership, they were unable to retrieve any error codes. Despite these efforts, the problem persists. Given the severity of the issue and the risk it poses while driving, I am requesting immediate assistance and a thorough investigation into the root cause of this malfunction. This is not only a mechanical concern but a serious safety issue that requires urgent attention. Please let me know the next steps to have this addressed properly and whether a formal case can be opened for further diagnostics and resolution. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The car was suddenly stalled at road multiple times, showing red warning "Engine control error. Park vehicle in a safe place" . Porsche is unable to solve such major safety issue of its electric car for past two years.

I was driving 30 mph in drive mode on westheimer rd when the car suddenly emergency braked and lost all power i went from 30 to 0 in about a second. Yes the car is available for inspection on request. The car had 180 miles of battery power. The car behind me slammed their brakes on and nearly slammed into the rear of the car. The red warning light came on "Electrical System Error park vehicle in a safe place". There was absolutely no warning before this occurred. I am afraid for my life with this car i nearly got into an accident at 30 mph let alone if i was on the highway i could have easily died. This problem has been reported with thousands of porsche taycans. The car has been at the porsche dealership for a week so far where they are reporting electrical faults in the car.

Complete battery failure. Luckily occurred in a safe location and while parked.

Car completely shut down in an intersection, lost all power and would not move, error read: Motor control error stop vehicle in a safe place. prior to shutting down the vehicle jerked and slammed on the brakes in a busy intersection.

While driving normally on a highway, the car suddenly reported "Electrical System Error, Stop vehicle in a safe place", which is followed by a complete loss of power, even pressed on acceleration pedal. I immediately pulled over to the side of the highway, the car slowed down quickly and stopped. The car was unable to restart ever since. After 1-2 hours, the vehicle's power was completely lost.

Was driving on freeway at 70mph and car suddenly lost power ....we were in furthest lane and had to attempt to get the car to safety on a busy LA freeway by crossing 4 lanes Extremely scary as had my children in the car... My family now refuse to get in the car for safety concerns Thankfully traffic wasn't at its peak as if it was i dread to think what would of happened

The safety risk of having the car’s motor completely lose power on the road/highway is high, as you are then left powerless. We have not reproduced this issue ourselves. Our local Porsche dealer has looked at it and said it was a “one off” type of malfunction and could not find any issue with the car when we brought it in. The car shut off while driving and gave a “Motor control error.” The car’s interior electronics stayed on, but the car had no drive power at all. There were no warning signs or problems prior to this issue occurring

While driving at approximately 40mph, a red message suddenly appeared in the dashboard saying “Engine Control Error- Park vehicle in a Safe Place”. Simultaneously, the car became unresponsive - for example, pressing the gas pedal had no effect. I was able to brake and drift to the side of the road, but the car kind of bumpily ground to halt, feeling almost as if I had a flat tire (which I did not). Once I shut off the car and restarted, it ran again but had that issue occurred at a high speed or on a busier roadway, a serious accident was possible. I just recently had the car serviced to do a major upgrade the software and have seen others posting in forums about this serious issue. I never had this issue prior to the software update and have driven the car over 5000 miles.

My car on two separate occasions lost power and took several seconds to recover while fighting it. It would suddenly state "Drive Attention Required" and seemed to hit the brakes hard and ignore my inputs. This occurred twice within a week roughly 3 weeks ago. This could have easily caused an accident as the car begins to slow quickly. The issue was not reproduced by the dealer and they claim it was related to a faulty software update (but they never reproduced or had any diagnostics on the issue so I'm not sure how they could claim that). It has not happened after the third reinstall of the software update but it also didn't happen except those two times when the software was apparently faulty so I still believe it could happen at any time. When the software was in a faulty state (which was common with the update and many had the same issues) the car's self driving tech was also semi functional and easy to have the car drive itself without knowing. The car would say "Driver's assistance inactive on the screen" but then drive itself at some unknown speed. I have a video of this. This is super dangerous.

While driving in a particularly curved section of highway 1 the vehicle lost all power and control. I had to wrestle the vehicle to the side of the road and narrowly avoided a cliff face off into the ocean. My entire family was in the car and could have been killed. This was after Porsche was unable to fix safety systems like my active cruise control and lane keep assist which were bugging out and trying to take over control of the car. I towed it to Porsche who attempted to address the problem and claimed it was fixed with a patch. There is no way to validate the work. Porsche did not communicate during the issue and offered little in the way of resolution.

AS I WAS COASTING TO A STOP AT A STOPLIGHT THE CAR SHUDDERED AND LOST ALL POWER FROM THE ENGINE. I WAS ABLE TO STOP THE CAR AND A RED WARNING ON THE DASHBOARD SAID 'DRIVE SYSTEM CONTROL FAULT, PARK VEHICLE SAFELY'. I'VE HEARD FROM A NUMBER OF OTHER TAYCAN OWNERS AND THEY HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WHILE DRIVING, IN SOME CASES ON THE FREEWAY AND HAD TO STOP IN THE LEFT HAND LANE. I BELIEVE THIS FAULT IS VERY DANGEROUS AND SERIOUS. I AM VERY CONCERNED THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ME WHILE DRIVING AT SPEED, AND COULD RESULT IN AN ACCIDENT AND/OR INJURY TO ME OR OTHERS. THE CAR DID RESET AFTER I TURNED IT OFF AND RESTARTED, AND I DID NOT HAVE A PROBLEM FOR THE REST OF THE DAY. THE CAR IS CURRENTLY AT THE DEALER.

Mileage: 6,000

ON TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS THE CAR HAD CATASTROPHIC FAILURES DUE TO THE 12 V BATTERY DRAINING FOR NO REASON. AND ONE OCCASION THE CAR HAD A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE DUE TO THE MAIN BATTERY SYSTEM HAVING A FAILURE. ALL OF THIS HAPPENED IN THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS OF OWNERSHIP. ALL TIMES THE VEHICLE WITH STATIONARY.

Mileage: 3,800

WHILE DRIVING, CAR BEGAN TO SHAKE ABRUPTLY AND STOPPED ITSELF. DASH FLASHED MOTOR CONTROL ERROR IN RED AND THE SYSTEM CONTROL ERROR AND WAS COMPLETE UNRESPONSIVE AND UNDRIVEABLE. CAR WAS TOWED TO PORSCHE AND THEY HAVE NO ANSWERS AFTER 3 DAYS. THIS WAS VERY DANGEROUS, AS THE CAR SLAMMED ON THE BREAKS AND STOPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. HAD IT BEEN A HIGHWAY, I COULD HAVE BEEN HIT.

Mileage: 3,000

TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2020 PORSCHE TAYCAN. THE CONTACT STATED THAT WHILE DRIVING OUT OF HIS DRIVEWAY, THE VEHICLE STALLED WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE VEHICLE HOWEVER, THE VEHICLE FAILED TO RESUME NORMAL OPERATION. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO GOSSETT PORSCHE (1875 COVINGTON PIKE, MEMPHIS, TN 38128) WHERE A DIAGNOSTIC TEST WAS STILL PENDING. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED BY EMAIL HOWEVER, THE CONTACT HAD NOT RECEIVED A RESPONSE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 1,090.

Mileage: 1,090