2016 SE Hybrid. 34,000 mi. Love the car but in a quandary for the future. Had a hybrid battery failure and, contrary to my naive prior view, the car cannot run as a gas-only vehicle without a functioning hybrid battery. Got it replaced under warranty - took 3 months to get one from Germany - but am unable to get a formal answer from my dealer as to whether the new battery still gets only the remainder of (what I believe) is the original 10 year warranty or if the clock starts over with the new battery. Was told that the charge for such a replacement if not under warranty would have been $23,000. Obviously, I am concerned that I might ever incur such a cost in the future. Seems like I need to get rid of this car before the battery is no longer under warranty. If so, why would anyone buy it (dealer or private) as the time draws closer? The resale value must plummet - which seems completely anti-Porsche approach. Perhaps I'm missing something here.

Questions:

1. Is it absolutely true that the car cannot run without a working hybrid battery?
2. Does anyone know for sure the answer to how long the hybrid battery warranty lasts and if the clock resets with a replacement after three years?
3. If it were you, would you sell it before that end-date even if you loved the car? I usually drive my cars for 10 or more years.
4. Do you agree that anything close to the battery being beyond warranty would make the resale value plummet?

 

I'm not sure about most of your issues but I believe the underlying problem is one that is going to be a real wake up call for all these EV owners. The average lifespan for an EV lithium battery is around 7 years (this is what I've read in several articles). The replacement cost is substantial, $25,000ish, that being the case...what do you do if you have a Tesla or whatever EV coming up on 5 to 7 years? The resale value approaching this line in the sand will be greatly diminished and investing $25K (not including what I would think would be a couple of grand in labor for the replacement and then whatever the fee would be for the battery disposal) in a 7 year old car seems cost prohibitive for most. Also, environmentally, what do we do with all these dead batteries? They can't be recycled, you need to bury them somewhere which is environmentally unsound. I don't think people/governments have really thought this through.

 

I sold my 2016 Pan @40K because of its problem with Hybrid session. So many problems with Hybrid since I had the car for 4 years, I sold it last year July for $34K to Porsche dealer Autonation, they turned around with new brake job in the front and sold it for $43K in 1 wk. LOL ... I asked myself why people buy Hybrid, not me for all Porsche Hybrid regardless the new model.
It is time for you to get rid of your Hybrid, quick ...

 

I traded in my 2014 Pan Hybrid at 46k miles, same issues as Dougcayenne. But my car in the shop 5 times in 1 year, last time was for 2 months!

 

Given the pricepoint of these cars and the cost of the repair, I am really surprised we're not hearing a lot more about this via the media. Right now, unless you're active on one or two Porsche-specific forums, you'd never know that buying a hybrid Porsche is signing up for a mountain of pain.

 

I agreed 100%. after the warranty, and last issue costed us $1.5K repair with Porsche covering 50%, $3K repair bill, the work required to remove front bumper. the car was in the Porsche Shop 5 times in 2021. We predict new problem may come up, and we don't want to spend $ to fix. it is time to sell the car ...

 

no issues with my 2016 pseh, since buying new. knock on wood. but only have 18k miles. don't like reading this stuff, but am sticking with the car for the time being-i also have long term plans with it (fingers crossed). hopefully battery prices come down by the time that i need one. i certainly don't plan to ever have the battery replaced by porsche when it is needed, unless under warranty. there are refurb places whose links have been posted on these forums that are much more reasonable.

 

My wife's 14 PSeH had the battery go out at 6 years and ~60K miles. Porsche were total dicks about approving the repair. And then sourcing a replacement.
Took eight months to get it replaced. And yes, the car was bricked the entire time.

All-in, our repair was well into the $30K++ range with loaner cars and other costs borne by Porsche.

The refurbished battery was finally installed in June 2021. E range increased to low 30s. Today, nine months later, the range is already down to 22-24 miles.
My wife steadfastly refused to dump the car after the new battery was put in. The car will be scrap when this battery goes in perhaps another year or two.

Porsche will never get another penny from me.

 

I hear and feel your pain—The Money Pit movie. We learned from Porsche hybrid that the problems with hybrid sessions keep having during the warranty, and even Porsche stands behind the product helping to pay 50%. After the warranty, It is $$$ to take the car to Porsche shop and waste time. We currently have 2 Porsche ICE. We love cars. They are solid and don’t have any problems for six years.
Hope you will not have any problems with the car from now on.

 

Does anyone have a sense re what percentage of these hybrid batteries go bad? Love my '16 Panamera EH with 23K miles and have had zero issues but now wondering if I should sell to play it safe. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

Yes, I understand your love for your 2016 Hybrid. I had 2016 Pan Hybrid PDLS+ and PP+, and Lidar. I had many issues around 28K-40K with Hybrid session. Porsche stood behind their product with guarantee. It still costs me $2.5K split of $5K repair. I sold it last year @ 40K miles. I do not want to have Porsche Hybrid. Money Pitt and painful. You have to ask yourself. Would you spend a few $K to repair the hybrid session since the your guarantee is out and you don't know how many issues you would have next few years?

 

While my PGTS 970.2 was in the shop for a recall they gave me a panamera hybrid loaner. It was impressive but not enough to convince me to buy one primarily because I will not be able to fix it. Even the ICE models are difficult for owners to repair. I have quite a bit of experience fixing cars and keeping them through 14 to 16 years of service. Those days are over. Eventually the only choice will be Hybrids or BEVs. My current plan is to trade before the MFG warranty expires (expensive option) or keep until it needs a significant repair then walk away (potentially cheaper option).

 

Porsche just agreed to change the HV battery in my 2016 Panamera e-Hybrid, 52K miles. Hadn’t noticed any issues driving the car but I got the check engine light, probably 2 months ago. A buddy of mine with PIWISS saw the P0A8000 code - replace HV battery error. We cleared the codes a few times but it always came back on the 2nd restart of the car. Took it into Porsche last week 10/26. Six days and $1200 worth of diagnostics time later they told me that the HV battery would need to be replaced and that it wasn’t covered under warranty. I quickly informed them of the Federal mandate that requires EV manufacturers provide the 8 year/100,000 mile extended battery warranty and they said they would see what they could do. 24 hours later I had a call back and they now agreed to cover the replacement HV battery. That was earlier this morning. Hoping it won’t take too long for them to get a replacement in.

 

Will they refund the diagnostic fees too?

 

I don't think the diagnostics fee is covered, however the labor to replace the HV battery should be.

Part of the diagnostics included bringing the cars software up to date. Probably didn't require much as 2016 was the last year that the 970.2 E-Hybrids were manufactured. From what we saw with PIWIS they are also able to read the individual battery cell voltages and have some latitude to change the threshold values which trigger the Fault code. They then take the car for a test drive and see if the code comes back. I was told that they were working with the Porsche Engineers and went through this a number of times but the fault code kept coming back.

We didn't see this in PIWISS but they can also pull logs from the car which show how often the EV battery gets charged, which for me wasn't a problem since I have a Chargepoint 30A charger installed in my garage which is Wifi connected so I carry around the charge log everywhere i go on my cellphone and could easily prove the battery wasn't abused.