In the latest proof that the 2025 Octavia 1.5 PHEV cars have **** for brains, my brand new estate has come to a full stop in wet weather twice in the past week, with a 48volt failure message that disables the drivetrain and makes the car undriveable. Although the rain was very heavy at the time, the water on the road was not particularly deep.

Fortunately, I was driving slowly on a lightly trafficked road. Turning the ignition off, getting out of the car (and getting drenched in the process), locking it, waiting a couple of minutes and then unlocking it enabled me to start the engine.

But I wonder what would happen if this happened while driving at speed on a motorway and having to manage an uncontrolled system-initiated stop. Would my descendants be able to sue Skoda for corporate manslaughter?

Has anyone else had this experience?

Wait until you try active cruise and you are doing 70 on the motorway and it sees a 10mph sign and rams on the breaks

I have. And it does.

On 21/03/2025 at 18:09, Bob_A said:

2025 Octavia 1.5 PHEV cars have **** for brains, my brand new estate has come to a full stop in wet weather twice in the past week, with a 48volt failure message

Is it a PHEV, or a mild-hybrid? The 48V message would indicate a mHEV...
AFAIK the Facelift Octavia no longer offers a PHEV drivetrain.

13 minutes ago, SkOmk4 said:

Is it a PHEV, or a mild-hybrid? The 48V message would indicate a mHEV...
AFAIK the Facelift Octavia no longer offers a PHEV drivetrain.

I may have got my acronyms wrong. I think it's probably an mHEV. It's crazy (and very dangerous) that a mild hybrid boost system failure should be capable of shutting down the primary petrol drivetrain.

Indeed, there are plenty of glitches on the control-electronics side with this VAG generation (also affecting the platform "step-brothers" Golf, Leon/Formentor etc.).

On 21/03/2025 at 18:09, Bob_A said:

Fortunately, I was driving slowly on a lightly trafficked road.

I am assuming that when the error occurred, the ICE was at zero rpm, and the driving situation needed it to be restarted - was it? And 48V failure implied that the starter/generator could not be used/energized at that moment...

1 hour ago, Bob_A said:

a mild hybrid boost system failure should be capable of shutting down the primary petrol drivetrain

It is highly unlikely that it happens the other way around: the ICE is running and the 48V-failure stops the ICE. However, a failure of the 48V system - makes the ICE starting impossible.

The big question is: did this failure leave any error messages stored on the car? That's what the dealership will look for when you report the problem. In some cases reported online, similar issues (such as failure to start the car and recovery after several minutes of waiting) - did not leave any stored-errors, which makes it difficult (if not impossible) - for the dealership to diagnose/fix the problem.

1 hour ago, SkOmk4 said:

The big question is: did this failure leave any error messages stored on the car? That's what the dealership will look for when you report the problem. In some cases reported online, similar issues (such as failure to start the car and recovery after several minutes of waiting) - did not leave any stored-errors, which makes it difficult (if not impossible) - for the dealership to diagnose/fix the problem.

Might be helpful to select a service partner in MySkoda app. Then the app reports problems directly to workshop, and as far as I understand, does it right away as error pops up. So even if nothing left in logs for some reason (which I doubt when it comes to drive errors), there will be evidence of smth being wrong.

46 minutes ago, Edela said:

Might be helpful to select a service partner in MySkoda app.

Yes, that might also help, even though I'm not sure how well that works... So far I've read about several different situations:

• car throwing an on-board (major) error/fault (e.g. drivetrain), requesting immediate visit to the workshop - but no notification received by the "favorite service" - those seem to be most of the cases;

• car having no problem while driving and no fault in the "car status" on the infotainment, but owner receiving a call from the service saying the car reported some error, "visit us so we can check the car" - very few cases.
  
  Mine initiated 2 or 3 times a "breakdown call" - but that was clearly the faulty roof control panel with it's well-known problems. However, my "favorite service" never called me... 🥲

7 hours ago, Edela said:

Might be helpful to select a service partner in MySkoda app. Then the app reports problems directly to workshop, and as far as I understand, does it right away as error pops up. So even if nothing left in logs for some reason (which I doubt when it comes to drive errors), there will be evidence of smth being wrong.

The dealer is configured in the MySkoda app. They never followed up on the issue. I ran an ODB trace and the 48v issue didn't appear. This is - by a distance - the worst new car I have ever had the misfortune to buy.

13 hours ago, Bob_A said:

I ran an ODB trace and the 48v issue didn't appear.

Ok, that's not great. You'll need to take pictures or a video of the error message if/when it happens again. It's really surprising that yesterday evening someone was reporting an identical situation on a Formentor facelift (same platform - 1.5 eTSI DSG): car about 5.000 km and it happened twice; once while driving and once stationary. As in your case, the dealership said they have no errors stored and can't diagnose the issue. (also not easy to reproduce - as it happens randomly...)

This story looks to me very similar to the problem VAG had when they launched the facelift (Octavia, Formentor, Golf, even the new Tiguan). Every once in a while, the car was refusing to start (get in, press Start - no reaction). It was happening randomly, not on all cars, and mostly in wet weather - the dealership told me it was happening on some of the new cars after they were washing them for delivery preparations!!! The dealership would scan the car immediately and there were no errors to be found. Meanwhile, after plenty (I assume) of reports for that error/fault, I read that VAG released a SW update to address that issue. If I'm not mistaking it was a Gateway related problem.

I'm guessing it will be a similar situation with the problem you reported, they need feedback from the users to identify and solve the root-cause of the issue. Just remember to record the fault...

27 minutes ago, SkOmk4 said:

I'm guessing it will be a similar situation with the problem you reported, they need feedback from the users to identify and solve the root-cause of the issue.

I'd be a fan of Skoda for life if they actually had some channel for end users to communicate back to developers. Can't really rely on workshops in the process, they often seem to not bother at all.