2024 PORSCHE MACAN — Problems, Recalls & Safety Data

Collion Warning alarm came on with full application of brakes with no vehicles in front or behind. No onward traffic either. Visibility was clear, and driving conditions good. Driving at 35-40 mph. Informed dealer three times (and three different individuals) on December 31 and despite a bevy of promises they have taken no action. Placed warning on Macan.com and several other (purported) owners claimed to have experienced an identical issue. This is self-evidently highly dangerous. Lack of responsivess from Porsche dealer [XXX] ) has also been derisable. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The car has a burning rubber order when driven intermittently, with smoke coming from the vents. This has been evaluated by Porsche Silver Spring 3 times June, October, November of 2025. June dealer unable to reproduce, October they reproduced it and replaced a heater. The problem has persisted but in November and December they dealer has been unable to reproduce on their test drive.

I was driving home in my 2024 Porsche Macan 4 EV, at about 65 miles per hour on a divided highway. I had my climate control set to 75 degrees on both the driver and passenger side of the vehicle. I believe that the air conditioning was set to off. I also had the drivers seat heated at the max setting. I was alone in my vehicle. It was the first time since I owned my Macan that I had set the heat to that temperature. Approximately 10 minutes into my drive on the highway, I started smelling an acrid smell. I assumed that the smell was coming from outside of my vehicle. I could smell the acrid smell, however, I could not see the source of the smell. Then, I started seeing a very light gray or white smoke coming out of the defroster vents at the base of the windshield. The amount of smoke wasn’t overpowering however, I was concerned if the vehicle was going to catch fire. I opened the driver‘s window in an effort to let the smoke get out of the vehicle. The smoke and the acrid smell lasted perhaps 20 seconds or so; I can’t say for sure. I drove perhaps another five minutes on the highway to my exit and happened to be near my former Porsche dealer. I brought the vehicle to a halt in their parking lot away from other vehicles. I opened up the front trunk and looked for any issues and attempted to find any hot areas in that front trunk. I could not locate anything unusual. I then drove another 10 minutes to get home and parked the Porsche on my driveway. I didn’t experience any further issues this evening. While searching online for individuals experiencing a similar issue, it appears that the issue results from a defective passenger compartment electric heater (ZX17), detailed here: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2025/MC-11017831-0001.pdf I will continue to monitor this in the next few days.

My car has intermittently triggered false collision warnings—approximately 8 to 10 times over ~8,500 miles. Each time, while driving between 20–40 mph with no visible obstacles, the system issued an orange collision alert, sounded an alarm, and abruptly applied the brakes. This sudden braking poses a serious safety risk, as it could cause a rear-end collision. The vehicle has been at the dealer for 14 days and remains there, as they’ve been unable to replicate the issue or find any stored fault codes.

I was driving at 40mph on a town road on a dry, sunny day when, without warning, the brakes slammed on extremely forcefully, almost to a full stop, and a big triangle showed on the dashboard with the words COLLISION WARNING. I don’t recall if there was an audible alarm or not. The warning disappeared and the car resumed forward motion almost as quickly as it had appeared. My body jolted forward against my seat belt and items on the passenger seat went flying forward and fell on the floor. There were no other cars on the road at the time but, if there had been anyone in back of me, it very well could have caused an accident. My neck and chest are quite sore the day after this happened. I stopped the car and walked around outside and did not see anything out of the ordinary - nothing in the road either. It was a paved secondary road without potholes in the immediate vicinity. The dealership will be picking up the car to inspect it and implement an “alert” upgrade service for the front camera system that may or may not have any connection to the problem.