Mystery solved? Porsche Macan, Taycan, 718 EVs set to step up tech war on battery health with important feature few others can offer

Porsche is working on advanced battery analytics software that could soon provide owners of its electric vehicles with information on the health of the most expensive component of the car.

Porsche’s global spokesperson for the Taycan, Mayk Wienkoetter, says the company is working on analysing state of health (SoH) and making the information available to owners, rather than keeping it contained within the onboard computer only for technicians to view

“It’s useful information … so I don’t see why not if it’s really possible in a reliable way to display the SoH of the car,” said Wienkoetter, adding that it made sense to make it available within the central infotainment screen.

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“I would actually like to see that.”

Wienkoetter says early global data from the Taycan that’s been on sale since 2019 suggests battery degradation is much lower than engineers had originally forecast, something that correlates with comments and data released by other manufacturers, including Tesla.

“We’ve hardly seen a [Taycan] battery that has lost more than 5 per cent, 8 per cent (of its original capacity),” he said.

“We have one customer in France, he has driven 300,000 kilometres with his Taycan 4S … and his battery is well over 90 per cent (capacity), still.”

The move to provide information on battery health comes as ongoing concerns about the longevity of EV batteries continue to weigh on owners and buyers. 

Battery health is also seen as a contributing factor for the values of used electric cars due to concerns about future battery replacement costs.

And it’s an issue likely to gain prominence for Porsche, which will soon switch its top selling car – the Macan mid-sized SUV – to electric only.

Porsche is also readying the next generation of its 718 Boxster and Cayman, each of which will drop petrol in favour of electrons.

While all EVs monitor data that helps analyse the condition of the high voltage battery, most conceal that information within the onboard computer. Only Nissan has a battery state of health display available to owners in the instrument cluster.

However, Wienkoetter says determining the state of health of an EV’s battery is complex and can be difficult to distill into one easily digestible number.

Loss of capacity, for example, is only one measurement of battery health, with others including the physical breakdown of materials within the battery, something that can lead to failure in the longer term.

In some ways it’s similar to star ratings applied to vehicle safety; buyers want something easy to understand, but once you delve into the details there can be big differences not made obvious by that simplified headline rating.

“Determining the SoH is quite a challenging business,” said Wienkoetter, who said simply plugging into the onboard diagnostics (OBD) could provide a broad spread of data.

“There are many tools that you can just plug into your OBD and they will give you one number [to determine battery state of health].

“If we look more thoroughly into the real SoH into the battery it’s quite a different number sometimes.”

He says the company is working on providing accurate and comparable data that provides a clear picture of battery health.

“The measurement methods are not always very exact and we still have to find an easy way to access the OBD and still have a reliable number.

Once this is in place we could consider to also claim the SoH on the instrument cluster. We haven’t discussed it yet. But it’s useful information … so I don’t see why not if it’s really possible in a reliable way to display the SoH of the car, why not just put it on the PCM as well. 

Wienkoetter acknowledges providing such information would be beneficial to dealers and buyers and sellers of electric Porsches by providing confidence that a battery is in good condition.

EV health would also allow owners to better compare otherwise identical used vehicles, potentially adding value to some cars.

“It also gives the second owner confidence that the battery is in good health,” said Wienkoetter.