Problems with the heating, parts for repair are missing

Taycan at a Porsche dealership in the USA

The expensive electric sports car apparently has problems with the heating.

(Photo: Getty Images; Per-Anders Pettersson)

Dusseldorf Porsche drivers need to dress warmly this winter – and that can be taken literally. The reason: The heating system of the electric sports car Taycan apparently causes trouble and, according to several customer reports, sometimes even fails completely. Vehicles of the Audi E-Tron GT electric coupe are also affected. Both electric cars are based on the same technical platform. Many components are identical, including the heater.

Around 800 Porsche and 200 Audi models are said to be affected, reports the British specialist magazine “Auto Express”. The US business service Bloomberg quotes a Norwegian Taycan driver who described his vehicle in an Internet forum as “absolutely useless in winter”. The Taycan is an expensive electric car with a price starting at 88,400 euros.

Since December, almost four dozen users who have experienced the problem have spoken up in a German-speaking Porsche forum. In some cases, customers report long waiting times for the replacement of the defective component. Several forum entries also indicate that a Webasto heater was probably the cause of the error and had to be replaced. Webasto did not want to comment on the Handelsblatt request.

Porsche confirmed that the Taycan could experience “heating failures due to a potential material defect”, but did not give any details or the manufacturer of the defective component. A spokeswoman explained that due to the error, the heating function and defrosting could not work. In addition, it is only possible to a limited extent to dehumidify the Taycan. To repair the vehicles, it is necessary to replace the heater. However, delays could currently occur due to supply bottlenecks. In individual cases, Porsche makes replacement cars available to its customers.

Audi also confirmed the problems of the E-Tron GT and announced that customers were offered “an alternative mobility program in defined individual cases”. “We cannot comment on the number of cases at the moment due to the ongoing analysis,” said a spokesman for the VW subsidiary.

Shortage of parts and VW: ID electric cars without a heat pump

Delivery delays are also currently causing comfort problems in other electric models from the VW Group. At the end of January, the magazine “Auto Motor Sport” reported that the electric ID models from Volkswagen are currently being delivered without an optional heat pump. The Audi and Skoda brands are also affected. The feature cannot be selected during the ordering process.

A spokesman confirmed to the Handelsblatt that the problem persists. Heat pumps are used in electric cars to preheat the battery to make it more efficient. However, it is also used to heat the interior of a vehicle. However, an electric car can also be heated without a heat pump; the component is available as an extra in many cars. Unlike diesel or petrol vehicles, electric cars do not generate enough waste heat for heating, so the energy for heating has to be generated from the drive battery.

As the first purely electrically powered Porsche, the Taycan is extremely important for the image and the transformation of the sports car manufacturer. However, the prestige model recently caused concern for the Swabians. Last year, Porsche was only able to deliver 34,801 vehicles from this series worldwide – 16 percent fewer than in the previous year. Porsche justifies the decline with supply chain problems and limited parts availability.

More: Why the Taycan electric car is worrying

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