After 1,5yrs and more than 50000 smug and pretty much faultless kilometers in my 2020 Taycan 4S+, the “God syndrome” as I’m going to call it from now on, kicked in.

Driving home from our Christmas holidays 1600km one way on wintery roads in our cold climate everything went as expected for the first 400kms. Snowy conditions and -4 degrees. Car performing it’s usual super-supreme best. Just powering through anything Mother Nature could throw at it. Crossing high altitude mountain passes 1250m ASL. Winter tyres gripping awesome.

First one short charging session just to clear the mountain pass with enough juice not to worry. Then a longer one at an Ionity 350kW charger where we went from 25% SOC to 87% SOC. Battery temperature was 31 degrees at the end of the session.




Then we left the charging stadion crossing another mountain. 40kms into this leg on top of the mountain, the car out of nowhere suddenly displayed: “Engine management fault, park safely at once!”. Like God hit the main switch, car was dead. We could only roll to a standstill. In the middle of the road, on less travelled mountain back road. Car could only go
into park, or neutral. Lights worked. Climatization did not, but the fans span round defogging the windows.






I put on the hazards and scrambled out to put up the warning triangle 300m behind us. Luckily I managed to stop at the end of a straight. But cars kept coming and I feared they would plow into us with locked brakes on the slippery road. After 45 mins ventilation and heat stopped working. Then the screens went black and frunk and boot wouldn’t open. Then after 75mins hazards stopped working. Thats when I started to get really stressed by the situation. Luckily hazards went out while I was talking to a passing motorist in his petrol 90’s SUV. He scrambled behind me covering
us with his flashing hazards preventing a possible deadly crash.



Got on the phone to Porsche assist and had an argument on where the car should be dropped off. Nearest PC or the one closest to me, some 10000kms further north. And more disdainful information we’re recieved on what it what not the insurance covered. Then the flat bed rescue car rang. Then the rental car company rang. Then more talk with someone else from Porsche assist saying I couldn’t both have a rental, and get a flight home from the nearest
airport some 2,5 hrs drive away. I had to choose. Crappy van rental car (last available
in the region) all the way 2 days driving home, or get airplane tickets to fly home. In no instance I was to get covered the hotel stay we needed from yesterday until today. I could of course try to get Porsche to reimburse
me afterwards. Pure chaos. And the person calling from porsche assist had no authority to cut through the red tape and decide what was best cause of action for me. I had to do that myself. Pay both the rental to the airport and the overnight stay. I also booked the necessary plane tickets instead of having Porsche assist do it for me. Saved the receipts and see what Porsche eventually will cover at a later date.

Flat bed arrived with rental and we had to jump the leads in the fuse box to get boot and frunk opened to retrieve all our luggage and get it loaded into the Renault Van. Had a lengthy drive to the airport and some problems delivering the rental as no persons were present receiving the cars piling up at the drop off (Hertz).




Now at home, we still haven’t heard from Porsche Assist checking up on us.

Just gone numb by the situation and trying to figure out what to do. Talked to the werksmeister at my PC and he said If they got the car to fix, they would try to get me a loaner. He also believed it to be a lengthy fix, and it could be battery related. In these Covid times I reckon it could take months of waiting on parts.

When it’s all done and over with, I’m also become really skeptical to the whole EV life. I demand any newish car I own, to just work and perform on a lengthy road trip. I’m not sure but I don’t believe this would have gone this south so fast with an ICE car. The situation could have become fatal. The Taycan was just a piece of dumb metal in the end. Nothing, absolutely nothing worked.

And all of this came out of nowhere totally without a warning. From peachy sublime, to worst car
related experience in an instant.

I’ll send Porsche Assist an email now. Let’s see what happens.