Taycan to the Norwegian Fjords (Summer 2024 Trip Journal)

[tigerbalm]

Tunnels

Some of the tunnels yesterday were narrow and dark.

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[perski]

At least it's easy to spot oncoming traffic when there is no lighting in the tunnel. Not so much fun when you're cycling and you forgot the bike light at home

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Next time perhaps, though I had rather thought this would be my last car.

I don’t think that works. You have to keep your foot on the accelerator and this limits the speed. It isn’t really what I would call cruise control

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 10: Balestrand (Norway) -> Sandane (Norway)

A relatively simple day today – but with what should be an enjoyable mountain climb.

We check-out around midday and pack up the car.



And head north – to what will be our most northerly stay on this trip – a heck of lot more south than our normal Norway road-trip!

It is a wet day – but we stop off when there are dry spells to admire the fjords.



We attach a GoPro to record our mountain climb from a unique perspective – compared to our dash cam.



Unfortunately the rain is very persistent during the climb – ah well – can't change the weather.

Mountains + hairpin turns + trees = our favourite kind of driving.



Made it!



If you'd like to see the climb – please watch on the largest screen – and highest resolution you have to experience it best.

It shows the realities of what we're facing: the wet roads, the oncoming camper vans, the 80 km/h road limits. But also how great the AWD drive system is on the Taycan, the PDCC keeping the car flat in the faster hairpins, the Pirelli's providing great wet grip even after 25,000km on them.



We stop off for a quick side-of-the-road comfort break.



The day remains wet – but perhaps that helps keep the roads quiet.

We reach our next hotel – Gloppen Fjord Hotel – for two days – and plug in for a slow 5 kW destination charge. We're living on these kinds of charges now – which was always the hope – but never planned to be relied on.



The days charging stats

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Gloppen Hotel	29%	100%	59.4	€35.03	11 hours 31 mins	12.5	31	AC 7 kW	Kople

Today we did 210 km over 4:35 hours, with an average speed of 47 km/h, consuming 26.6 kWh/100km.

 

[tigerbalm]

Taycan Turbo S acceleration

On these roads and as a visitor to Norway we do not speed – so all of this video is at the max 80 km/h limits of this road.

However, even within this relatively low upper speed, the Taycan Turbo S acceleration is great fun – especially coming out of corners.

GoPro video tends to make things look slower than they are. In this video at around the 2:30 minute mark you can see us make a safe overtake of a VW ID.3 that was travelling at around 40 km/h.

Our Taycan reaches 80 km/h in a blink of an eye and that 2x speed difference really extends a distance between our vehicles very quickly.

We think it gives a good sense of the everyday acceleration available in this vehicle.

 

[JerryLNK]

@tigerbalm - Great videos on Youtube. A good perspective on how narrow the mountain roads are. Not sure how it felt as the driver and passenger, but as a viewer some of those trucks are passing very close. Love your travelogue, by the way!

 

[f1eng]

I don’t think that works. You have to keep your foot on the accelerator and this limits the speed. It isn’t really what I would call cruise control

OK, tht is a relief then my non-selection of ACC is the right thing for me.

 

[tigerbalm]

@tigerbalm - Great videos on Youtube. A good perspective on how narrow the mountain roads are. Not sure how it felt as the driver and passenger, but as a viewer some of those trucks are passing very close. Love your travelogue, by the way!

Mostly on-coming vehicles are very close. I estimate between 5cm to 10cm between mirrors – more if there is a "pull in area".. But these style of rural roads are very similar to what we have also in Ireland – so not an unusual challenge for us.

A typical Irish rural road:

There are two – related – challenges I think we face here: (a) on-coming drivers underestimate the width of the Taycan – I think because it is low and "car" like and (b) much of it is rental camper vans with inexperienced drivers driving such vehicles – they tend to be poor at positioning and pulling in themselves (or reversing).

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 11: Drive around Sandane (Norway)

Pretty simple touring around the nearby fjords day today. We did say this trip was focused on the fjords!

We head out of our hotel to a fully charged car.

And it isn't long before we're back viewing the fjords. This time with massive cruise ships in them.

And even a motor yacht with helicopter.

The day starts off quiet but as we get nearer Jostedalsbreen National Park – the crowds of camper vans and bus tours just increase and increase until we're in a line of traffic.

Though the views were great – probably why it was crowded – it didn't make for a very enjoyable drive – especially with many massive buses stuck on every hairpin turn.

Though this video captures a queue caused by road-works – there was similar traffic throughout the route.





The fjords look great from both sea level and a height.



When not blocked by "shops of tat" for the cruise ship passengers.

We park up sometimes to try and let the traffic thin out.

And enjoy the rear-wheel steering of our Taycan.

Often parking up in puddles.



Among the many Twizys for rent.



Watching a public ferry come in across a fjord.



And queuing for our own ferry on three occasions.



Before finally the PCM directed us onto some quiet roads to push the Taycan along.

Finally arriving back at our hotel with 5% battery charge.



The days charging stats

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Gloppen Hotel	5%	100%	79.5	€42.5	12 hours 20 mins	13.5	31	AC 7 kW	Kople

Today we did 303 km over 7:12 hours, with an average speed of 43 km/h, consuming 23.8 kWh/100km.

 

[tigerbalm]

"Pining for the fjords"

And yes – every time we turn a corner and see a new fjord – we think of this classic sketch. It is impossible not to!

 

[whitex]

And even a motor yacht with helicopter.

Landing that heli must be fun, not a lot of room for error though:

Perhaps you could charter it to make your vacation more memorable:
https://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=motor-yacht-feadship-hull-9547
I think there would be enough room for the Taycan, maybe even EV charging?
</tangent>

 

[W1NGE]

Sorry, acc - I meant adaptive cruise control. I think the lack of coast and anticipation has quite an impact on range

True but you will also get recuperation as the car's speed is controlled (same with basic CC) / moderated.

Surprised it makes such a difference though but do the consumption figures hold true on distance travelled?

 

[W1NGE]

Landing that heli must be fun, not a lot of room for error though:

Perhaps you could charter it to make your vacation more memorable:
https://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=motor-yacht-feadship-hull-9547
I think there would be enough room for the Taycan, maybe even EV charging?
</tangent>

Didn't know Blofield was in town!

 

[gramorris]

True but you will also get recuperation as the car's speed is controlled (same with basic CC) / moderated.

Surprised it makes such a difference though but do the consumption figures hold true on distance travelled?

It is dependent on traffic conditions. Clear road or where you can avoid the car having to brake or accelerate it's negligible but once the car is slowing and accelerating it brakes and accelerates harder than I would because all it's doing is maintaining a set distance to the car in front.

It seemed more pronounced on the 2 lane French and Spanish network where you'd regularly get stuck behind lorries overtaking each other. The car would be doing 120km/h, hit the regen hard at the set distance to match the lorry speed and then accelerate reasonably hard again once the lorry pulled in. And I did find myself manually cancelling ACC because that process is not particularly comfortable either.

But cruising with ACC/Inno and lane keep I found less human energy sapping.

 

[tigerbalm]

Update

Yesterday we started the long journey back to Dublin and might fall a little behind on daily trip reports. We'll catchup and share when we can.

Thank you for continuing to "follow along".

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