Asger Risom
A strange technical failure has immobilized hundreds of luxury vehicles across Russia, leaving owners unable to unlock their doors or start their engines
A strange technical failure has immobilized hundreds of Porsche vehicles across Russia, leaving owners unable to unlock their doors or start their engines — and prompting questions about whether the disruption was accidental or something more targeted.
A sudden wave of breakdowns across Russian cities
Drivers in Moscow, Krasnodar, and several other regions began reporting identical problems late last week. Engines shut down without warning, fuel systems were blocked, and cars refused to unlock even with functioning key fobs. In many cases, vehicles became completely undriveable.
Russia’s largest dealership group, Rolf, said it received a surge of service calls after the cars “lost connection with their onboard alarm modules,” which connect to Porsche’s Vehicle Tracking System (VTS) via satellite. According to the company, all Porsche models and engine types appear to be vulnerable, and any affected car could potentially lock itself automatically.
Vehicles require partial disassembly to restart
Because the issue stems from the security system itself, a simple software update isn’t enough to fix it. Rolf told Russian media that restoring functionality requires manually resetting the VTS module — a process that often involves partially dismantling the car.
Owners’ groups shared workarounds online, including disabling or rebooting the VTS entirely, or disconnecting the battery for up to 10 hours. While these tactics have restored some vehicles, they are far from a guaranteed fix, and many cars remain offline.
No confirmed cause — but speculation spreads
Specialists are still investigating what triggered the outage. Porsche has not commented publicly, and there is no technical explanation yet for why satellite-linked modules across the country failed at the same time.
Rolf acknowledged that “it’s possible this was done deliberately,” but emphasized that there is no evidence to support the claim. Still, the timing has fueled speculation: Russia’s Porsche owners have been cut off from official support since the company halted deliveries and suspended commercial operations in 2022, though it still owns several subsidiaries in the country.
In Ukrainian media, the simultaneous failures have drawn attention because of Kyiv’s recent cyber and electronic-warfare operations — though there is no confirmation that the outage was caused by anything other than a system malfunction.
A small component, a large disruption
Whether accidental or intentional, the incident highlights how modern vehicles rely on deeply integrated security systems that can disable a car entirely when they malfunction. And with hundreds of Porsches now requiring manual resets and disassembly to get back on the road, Russian owners may be facing long waits for repairs — and few answers about what actually went wrong.
Sources: Moscow Times, Porsche, autonews.ru
