Porsche Lawsuit Filed Over Alleged Lithium-Ion Battery Defect in 2020-2024 Taycan EVs

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A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Porsche Cars North America of failing to disclose a dangerous, widespread defect in the 800-volt lithium-ion batteries found in the 2020-2024 model year Taycan electric vehicles (EVs). 

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The 65-page Porsche lawsuit says the apparent defect can cause a Taycan battery to lose power and short circuit, posing an unreasonable fire risk to drivers, passengers and those in structures near which a Porsche Taycan might be parked. 

According to the class action suit, Porsche has been aware of the Taycan battery problems for more than four years, at least since it was first reported in February 2020 that a Taycan parked in a residential garage in Florida caught fire and caused significant property damage, including the total loss of the vehicle. 

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The lawsuit says that since that incident, Porsche has “learned about several other fires and about numerous owner complaints about the Battery Defect.” In response, the automaker has issued “piecemeal recalls” of certain Taycan vehicles, with the most recent Porsche Taycan recall coming in September 2024 and covering more than 27,500 vehicles, the filing says.

According to the complaint, however, the Porsche Taycan recalls have failed to address the root cause of the battery defect, and Porsche “has not agreed to affirmatively repair or replace all the defective batteries.” 

“Rather than identifying a repair or replacement of all the defective batteries, the recalls instruct Taycan owners to limit charging to 80% capacity, resulting in a reduction of the advertised range that Taycan owners paid for and requiring owners to charge the Class Vehicles more frequently,” the suit says. 

As an ostensible solution to the battery defect, Porsche has proposed to have dealers install a software update that will purportedly allow the automaker to monitor for battery anomalies in Taycan vehicles, the case continues. However, that update for the electric vehicles will not be available until the first quarter of 2025, the lawsuit says.

The suit contends that even if the Porsche software update can successfully catch all battery anomalies and predict a problem—which the case calls “an open question that won’t be answered, at best, for months”—the company “admits that the batteries may have problems in the future.” 

According to the filing, Taycan buyers paid more than $100,000 for the vehicle in reliance on the Porsche brand and the company’s representations, and have been “left with a ticking time bomb.” 

“Porsche has left its customers with two terrible choices: an owner can decide to stop driving their Taycan for which they paid over $100,000, or they can continue driving the Taycan at the risk of losing power while driving on a highway or, even worse, experiencing a fire,” the suit summarizes. “To date, Porsche has been unable to develop, implement, or deliver an adequate repair to fully address the Battery Defect in all the Class Vehicles.”

Porsche has not offered a concrete timeline for addressing the Taycan battery problems, nor offered to compensate drivers for the “significant limitations” the alleged defect has placed on affected vehicles, the filing says. 

Per the case, Porsche Taycan drivers have been left with vehicles that cannot function as advertised, cannot be charged to the advertised range, require more frequent and less convenient charging, and may suddenly lose power or catch fire. 

The Porsche models covered by the class action lawsuit include 2020-2024 model year Taycan, Taycan 4, Taycan 4S, Taycan GT, Taycan GTS, Taycan Turbo, and Taycan Turbo S. 

The Porsche Taycan lawsuit looks to represent all individuals in the United States who own, owned, lease or leased any of the Taycan vehicle models listed above. 

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