Taycan ski trip - UK to the Alps

[PSUEric]

Great report once again showing the Taycan is a wonderful trip vehicle

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[f1eng]

Great trip. I'm about to fly to ski and now I'm wishing I'd chosen to drive instead!

Driving in Europe always highlights just how bad the UK road infrastructure is now

So disappointing.
As a young car enthusiast I remember test report journalists (in the '60s) going to the continent to see how the suspension coped with bad roads because UK roads were so smooth.
The absolute opposite now.

 

[taycan_ct]

A Look at the Charging Log So Far:

Charging Location	Country	Energy (kWh)	Porsche Card (£)	Ad-hoc (£)	Cheapest (£)	p/kWh (cheapest)	Cheapest Option	Saving vs ad-hoc (£)	Saving vs Porsche Card (£)
GRIDSERVE Sawtry	UK	60.008	27.75	53.41	27.75	46.2p	Porsche Card	25.66	0.00
Tesla Folkestone (Holiday Inn Express)	UK	75.546	N/A	39.28	39.28	52.0p	Ad-hoc	0.00	N/A
IONITY Baralle	FR	36.230	10.37	18.47	10.37	28.6p	Porsche Card	8.10	0.00
TotalEnergies Reims	FR	70.450	37.84	37.92	37.84	53.7p	Porsche Card	0.08	0.00
IONITY Perrogney-les-Fontaines	FR	68.716	19.69	35.04	19.69	28.7p	Porsche Card	15.35	0.00
Porsche Charging Lounge Nyon	CH	30.212	10.41	N/A	10.41	34.5p	Porsche Card	N/A	N/A
TotalEnergies Albertville	FR	72.603	39.66	37.20	37.20	51.2p	Ad-hoc	0.00	2.46
Totals	-	413.765	145.72	221.32	182.54	-	-	-	-
Total					182.62 (+0.08)

 

[cyclist]

Great report.

Curious. I had the 21” winter wheel set with Conti Wintercontacts fitted to my J1.2 in December. (Took about 7 weeks to get though. Seems the Wintercontacts were out of stock for a while. Couldn’t find a set of tires anywhere in the US till March 2026 delivery date.) The PCM has an option for 19”, 20” and 21” winter tires.

PCM lists 21” winter partial load as front 41psi / rear 43psi. Full load is front 44psi / rear 48psi.

 

[Norfolkporsche]

Great report - thanks for taking the time to post. I’m driving from the UK to Tromso in March, and your report is getting me excited!

 

[F1Ruaraidh]

A good trip report that I hope will encourage others to forget worrying about range and just get out on those wonderful French autoroutes (which by the way are even better with ALC/Innodrive taking some of the load).

But may I make a strong recommendation for any newcomers reading this. DC chargers are a precious resource in many parts of the world, and we all have a responsibility to the community to keep our time on them short. Sitting there for an hour *may* be OK (and overnight is NOT ok), but if there are only a few stalls and they fill while you are having your nice long lunch and not paying attention, others could find themselves queuing or being unable to get to their destination. So the general rule should be charge to 80-90% which should get you in and out in 15 mins, and move the car when done; if you need more charge, keep a very close and continual eye out and be prepared to move your car as soon as the other stalls fill up. And overnight at hotels, use an AC (Type 2) charger - that‘s what they are for.

Absolutely 100% this.

Long lazy lunches blocking a fast charger?
Poor form.

And yes I've done this skiing trip too.

ABC - always be charging. Use the hotel 22kW and don't block the DC longer than needed.

Get UP from lunch, go MOVE the car off the charger and return to finish your food with friends.

If you need 100%, move onto a nearby AC to complete the last bit and leave the 350kW charger to charge someone else at 350, not trickle charge you to 100% at 20-30kW.

 

[taycan_ct]

Absolutely 100% this.

Long lazy lunches blocking a fast charger?
Poor form.

And yes I've done this skiing trip too.

ABC - always be charging. Use the hotel 22kW and don't block the DC longer than needed.

Get UP from lunch, go MOVE the car off the charger and return to finish your food with friends.

If you need 100%, move onto a nearby AC to complete the last bit and leave the 350kW charger to charge someone else at 350, not trickle charge you to 100% at 20-30kW.

Ah yes, the sacred law of DC charger etiquette . No other cars waiting, plus it’s public infrastructure and I’m free to charge to 100%. Thank you for the lecture on proper charger behaviour. I’ll make sure to interrupt my meal, hover over my car, and keep my battery at 80% just to avoid offending the Fast Charger Police 🫠.

 

[Gkwan]

Hello and welcome to our first big proper continental European road trip in our March 2023 [MY23] Taycan 4S Cross Turismo. The car is fitted with 21-Inch Cross Turismo Design wheels, a panoramic roof, and we swapped the regular 265/35/21 and 305/30/21 Pirelli P-Zero Elect NF0 summer tyres for Michelin Pilot Alpin 5s in the same sizes, Annoyingly, there weren’t any Porsche-rated Continental WinterContact TS860s’ available, unless from a dodgy website, so we had to go for the Michelins. All of these options will obviously impact the range on the vehicle. It was tricky to decide the tyre pressures we’d run with the majority of the journey only at half-load with two passengers and luggage, then the run from Geneva to the resort and back being with four, and also with the PCM not able to set the recommended pressures with 21” winter tyres, only summers or all-seasons, we opted to select the all-season option, with it being the closest to our actual tyres…but did not strictly follow it. And went with 2.8 front 2.9 rear.

thanks for this very nice roadtrip report, being French myself it was funny to see many places I like Hope you enjoyed the ski quality as well !
Cheers !

 

[taycan_ct]

Great report - thanks for taking the time to post. I’m driving from the UK to Tromso in March, and your report is getting me excited!

Thank you. That sounds awesome - I’ll be keeping an eye out for another one of your epic journeys. Enjoy it!

 

[V8Turbo1974]

Awesome. I will be going to ARC1950 in April with my 4S, going to see if i can get the lounge in my route too, looks fab. Do you pay the Porsche subscription to get Ionity rates that low? I was looking to get the Ionity power subscription as the rate is so cheap, I currently have the free subscription as i charge mainly at home.

 

[taycan_ct]

Awesome. I will be going to ARC1950 in April with my 4S, going to see if i can get the lounge in my route too, looks fab. Do you pay the Porsche subscription to get Ionity rates that low? I was looking to get the Ionity power subscription as the rate is so cheap, I currently have the free subscription as i charge mainly at home.

Hi Darren, this was done using the free ‘Porsche Charging Service Taycan’ I got with the car. There’s no need to go for the IONITY Power subscription presuming you already have the Porsche one?

Porsche charges 30p/kWh at IONITY (0.33 EUR in France) vs the Power’s 43p/kWh (0.33 EUR in FR). Plus, Porsche’s free subscription also covers every 350 kW HPC charger a rate of 31p/kWh with a time-based fee of 44p/min after 60 minutes which in reality you’ll never pay since you’re rarely at a HPC for over an hour.

IONITY Power charges 70p/kWh for ‘ChargeLeague’ (Atlante, Electra and Fastned), and any others like TotalEnergies, Shell Recharge, ENGIE Vianeo etc you’ll have to pay the operator’s standard rate. But I’m not sure the EUR/kWh for this in France.

I get this isn’t the easiest to understand so you’re welcome to DM if necessary.

 

[V8Turbo1974]

Hi Darren, this was done using the free ‘Porsche Charging Service Taycan’ I got with the car. There’s no need to go for the IONITY Power subscription presuming you already have the Porsche one?

Porsche charges 30p/kWh at IONITY (0.33 EUR in France) vs the Power’s 43p/kWh (0.33 EUR in FR). Plus, Porsche’s free subscription also covers every 350 kW HPC charger a rate of 31p/kWh with a time-based fee of 44p/min after 60 minutes which in reality you’ll never pay since you’re rarely at a HPC for over an hour.

IONITY Power charges 70p/kWh for ‘ChargeLeague’ (Atlante, Electra and Fastned), and any others like TotalEnergies, Shell Recharge, ENGIE Vianeo etc you’ll have to pay the operator’s standard rate. But I’m not sure the EUR/kWh for this in France.

I get this isn’t the easiest to understand so you’re welcome to DM if necessary.

You must be on something different to me. Not sure if it’s different because my car is second hand?
I don’t pay a monthly subscription and am charged 69p/kwh inc vat at Porsche and IONITY. If I pay £13.99 a month, it reduces to 59p/kwh inc vat. My blocking fee is only 20p/min after 60mins https://assets-v2.porsche.com/int/-...rnational/Charging-Service/PCS-Plus-Pricelist
IONITY subscription and fees are way cheaper than this.

 

[anonymouse]

You must be on something different to me. Not sure if it’s different because my car is second hand?

The Porsche price lists are available in the app and also here:
https://ask.porsche.com/gb/en-GB/charging-service-price-list/

Most newer purchasers are on Charging Service Plus which is 39p/kWh at Ionity, Porsche, and a few selected networks in Europe, 59p/kWh on non-preferred DC chargers.

 

[V8Turbo1974]

Ah ha, Porsche Charging Taycan is way cheaper than standard or plus, but only available for the first 3 years. My car is 5 years old so I either stick at the free one of 69p or pay Porsche subscription of 13.99 and get it at 59p or pay IONITY subscription of 10.99 and get it for 43p

 

[Scandinavian]

Ah ha, Porsche Charging Taycan is way cheaper than standard or plus, but only available for the first 3 years. My car is 5 years old so I either stick at the free one of 69p or pay Porsche subscription of 13.99 and get it at 59p or pay IONITY subscription of 10.99 and get it for 43p

You are reading things incorrect if you compare the price at Ionity. Ionity are part of the preferred partners, heck VW group are part owners. So your Ionity price will be 39 p per kWh at a monthly cost of 13.99.

It all depends of the amount of kWh’s you charge per month away from possible home charging?

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