German automaker Porsche stopped deliveries and suspended its commercial operations in Russia in 2022, after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, but its cars remain some of the most popular among Russian motorists. That might soon change, however, as a considerable number of these expensive vehicles have recently shut down, for no apparent reason.
At the end of November, Russian media began reporting on a large number of Porsche cars across the country, from Moscow to Krasnodar, refusing to turn on. Some owners parked their cars in front of their homes only to discover the following morning that they had become expensive decorative pieces, while others stopped for quick errands to find that their vehicles wouldn’t start.
Rolf, Russia’s largest dealership group, reported a spike in the number of service requests from Porsche owners, as their vehicles mysteriously shut down and refused to start up again. A quick diagnostic revealed that the mass shutdown was linked to the cars’ built-in Vehicle Tracking System (VTS), which communicates with satellites to track the vehicle’s location.
Something or someone severed the connection between the cars’ VTS units and Porsche’s satellites, which activated the engine immobilizer and turned the cars into giant paperweights. The problem affects all Porsche models and engine types equipped with VTS units, which basically means every Porsche produced after 2013.
“Currently, there is no connection for all models and types of internal combustion engines,” Rolf’s service director Yulia Trushkova told Russian news outlet RBC. “Any vehicle can be blocked. Currently, the blocking can be bypassed by resetting the factory alarm unit and disassembling it. We are continuing to investigate the issue and the mechanics’ options for unlocking the vehicles.”
Rolf said that the satellite connection could have been severed deliberately or accidentally, but so far, there is only speculation. Porsche has yet to shine a light on this issue, and no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the mass shutdown.
As they wait for answers that may never come, Porsche owners are forced to look for solutions outside of official channels. Some reported that disassembling the VTS completely brought their cars back from the dead, while others said that resetting the unit by disconnecting the battery for ten hours or more worked.
