Potential Taycan owners: rejoice. You guys have to visit a dealership, sit in the waiting room, have a coffee (and possibly pay the fees) to “install the OTA updates” .

In the years before the Taycan’s unveiling, Porsche stated that the all-electric sedan, then called the Mission E, will feature over-the-air updates. Such a function would provide the all-electric Porsche a comparable ownership experience to Tesla’s vehicles, which receive consistent OTA updates every few weeks.

This was mentioned by Porsche CEO Oliver Blume, who noted that some of the Taycan’s OTA updates would allow a 400-hp version of the Mission E to be bumped to 450 hp. Such statements definitely suggest a Tesla-like update process, but if a recent letter from the German automaker is any indication, it appears that software updates for the Taycan will be a bit more old-fashioned, at least for the time being.

In a letter shared by Nicolas Boehmer on LinkedIn, the automaker stated that OTA updates are only used for the Taycan’s smaller patches for now. When it comes to major updates, Taycan owners would have to drive over to a Porsche Center to have the update manually loaded onto their vehicle. This, according to Porsche, is partly due to the size of the update itself, since physical centers have a high-speed internet line.

“The OTA system is already used for updates of a smaller scope. However, for compound updates such as this one, such a large amount of data is transferred that a smooth update in the Porsche Center is ensured with a high-speed line. Subsequently, the function of all control units is verified with a test. With a technology carrier such as the Taycan, the complexity of the systems is at a very high level, so we decided on this procedure,” the company wrote.

As noted by Mario Herger of The Last Driver License Holder, the size of the software update likely has little to do with Porsche’s decision to conduct manual updates for the Taycan. Tesla, for example, regularly rolls out software updates that are worth hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes of data, and they are usually downloaded using a mobile network or on a regular home broadband connection without issue. With this in mind, Herger stated that the complexity mentioned by Porsche likely refers to the Taycan’s electronics, which are far more complex than those found in Tesla’s electric cars.

Tesla is vertically-integrated, and it manufactures a significant number of its vehicles’ components in-house. This allows Tesla to simplify its cars’ electronics architecture with relatively few ECUs and AI chips. Traditional automakers do not follow this model, with the Taycan’s electronics reportedly having over 100 ECUs, many of which are from varying manufacturers. This ultimately makes it very difficult to coordinate regular software updates, which likely encouraged Porsche to simply perform the Taycan’s software upgrades manually.

“The coordination of a software update with so many suppliers is certainly no honeypot and the Porsche management seems to have taken the easiest way to periodically order Taycan owners to the workshop for an update. The fact that Porsche itself has to adjust to a rhythm of software updates lasting several weeks is challenge enough. If dozens of suppliers have to be coordinated, the complexity increases enormously,” Herger wrote.

That being said, Porsche still deserves some recognition for actually following through and rolling out a legitimate software update for the Taycan. As the company continues its push for electric vehicles with the Taycan Cross Turismo and the electric Macan, there may be a chance for the automaker to be more vertically-integrated in the near future.

 

We get it.. Tesla > all... you dont have to repeat the same thing in every thread in Car Talk....
In 5 years, everyone will be driving an EV with fast charging station in every corner...

 

Tesla owners rejoice! You have to sit at the dealership and do nothing (? considering they have no amenities) while they fix the shitty paint and panel gaps.

 

Someone in my neighborhood bought a Taycan Turbo a couple weeks ago. It looks absolutely stunning. Whether or not the Model S is a better EV is one thing, but in an area where Model 3 and Model S's are a dime a dozen, the Taycan is without a doubt a looker.

 

They’ll sit at home and enjoy a Model X loaner while their car is being fixed, and it’ll be will be delivered at home. .

 

You think Porsche hasn't been doing the same thing for decades?

 

man.. you need to get out more...

 

 

2022 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo to Be World's Most Expensive Station Wagon - autoevolution

 

Will it still have range of 200 miles?

 

Saw one [std Taycan] at my kids' school in a silvery white. Car is stunning in person.

 

If you go by the flawed EPA ratings, more than likely. It's the same drivetrain and battery after all.

The people buying these cars couldn't care less about the range anyway, as long as it's 'sufficient'. Just like the 911 buyers are not going to worry about what their mileage is. That's for plebs and people who drive by paper-specs.

 

Honestly, if I charged daily, 100 miles [true] range would be sufficient for the majority of my normal use. My commute is 15-20 miles (route dependent) 1-way.

 

My Golf R has slightly less range than your RDX. Which one is a better car?

 

^ Depend, is it an RDX Elite & are your slacks from Costco?

 

Actually they are.

 

Edit to my prior post, it was a Panamera, not a Taycan, that I saw yesterday

 

Lol. You need to get out more.

I'm seeing tons of them around Vancouver now. Absolute stunners.

Caveat - saw one with the base tiny wheels. It just looks wrong.

 

Ok, I'll do this.

Only-200-mile-range Taycan beats Tesla's record in crossing USA. In winter.

 

I think I've seen one. But I have a hard time telling them apart at a quick glance while driving

 

This was inevitable (Kyle Connor and Out of Spec Motoring are absolutely amazing at explaining this). Range is not the major factor in road tripping. The key is charging speed/profile. The Taycan can charge at 350kW and has a favorable charging profile.

 

These EA chargers can be pretty hit or miss. I'm 30 min in to this video and he's plugged into 5 different EA chargers and all of them have had some sort of issue from taking way to long to start charging before he gave up and moved to another charger, to charging over the stated 150kw rate and then dropping down to 50kw, to charging up to 270kw then crashing. I was watching the TFL MachE vs Y video yesterday and they had similar issues with the EA chargers. Apparently not all charging networks are the same. I'd like to see more info on his Taycan cannonball run seems like he had good luck there.

 

11 out of 15 EA chargers he plugged into charged slow, crashed or were all together not working

 

I've heard that EA is hot garbage. They don't have the infrastructure to support what they are trying to do.

 

Which is unfortunate because otherwise the Taycan is probably the best all-around road tripper in the EV market.

Although, for $140k, it should be.

 

The thing that surprised me is the range is significantly better than a Model 3 Performance. I can't believe VW group underestimated the range so badly.

 

Agreed, the EA and Chargepoint infrastructure is pretty lousy, at least here in California.

I had a friend who drove up from LA to SF in an e-tron. Just a 400 mile trip up I-5. What was supposed to be a 7 hour drive with 3 charging stops ended up taking 12 hours. Frankly there just isn't that many DC fast chargers yet. He had planned on stopping off just outside of Bakersfield for the first charge, but of the 7 stations available, 2 were broken, and the other 5 were already taken with a dozen other cars also waiting. Similar wait at the stop outside of Coalinga that had 7 stations, which incidentally is next to a "small" Supercharger lot with about 20 Superchargers (there's a bigger 40 Supercharger lot a few exits down the freeway). By the time he rolled into Gilroy, it was well past midnight so there was no wait for the chargers there.

And there-in lies the issue with non-Tesla EVs currently. Everyone, including Teslas, can use (fight over?) the comparatively small network of CCS stations, but only Teslas can use the massive network of Superchargers. It might get better as time goes on, but currently one of the competitive advantages that Tesla holds that nobody else can offer is the exclusive use of their vast charging network. I'm no fan of Tesla because of their shoddy build quality, but I have to admit that a BEV for long trips just isn't in the cards for me until there's some parity for the non-Supercharger infrastructure.

 

They might be doing the same as they do for engine performance. They rate it under worst case conditions, not normal performance. That's why you see them making engines that are advertised 300hp (for example) at the crank and people measuring that at the wheels.

 

I know Audi significantly underestimates everything, too

 

i seriously doubt anyone who can afford a $200k Turbo S Taycan really give a shit about range. If they needed to go far, they will either fly first class, private jet, or drive their other $200k SUV.

 

278mi

 

Everytime I see this car, my heart flutters...it is just stunning.

 

It's not underestimated, it's just rated in "worst case" conditions. So they'll test it in hot weather at high altitude or something and publish the output in those conditions. That way you're not pissed off when your car underperforms when you're on top of a mountain in a desert. Basically stating it can be no worse than this, but it can certainly be a lot better in better conditions. It's the difference of using the term "at least" vs "up to" in marketing info.

 

I dont think i have seen any mass produced EV that actually looks good until his car.

 

Best sounding too. Love how it sounds in real life.

 

 

Good, looks like the EV competition is heating up. Now will Acura and the other Jap brands, please will you join the fray?

 

 

Electrify America and Porsche were very involved with this trip, they got super special treatment. EA sent out techs to all 28 charging station on their route to make sure that the 350kw charging was working at each one. They were were given the phone numbers of all the EA management staff even the CEO so they could call if anything went wrong.

Porsche shutdown one of their service centers for a day just so they could work on the Taycan before it left and had to rip parts out of others cars to get it working.

So not your normal cross country trip, you ain’t getting that kinda service. The normal person gets the EA that Kyle experienced the day before where 11 out of 15 chargers gave him issues or didn’t work.

 

Making my way through this video. So far all of the 350kw chargers are still crashing with the Taycan, every single one, has to use 150kw. Not sure if it’s a Porsche or ea issue but either way they’re both owned by VW so they should’ve known about this problem years ago. It seems it’s only with certain model 350kw charger but so far that’s the only ones installed at the stations he’s going to.