Road trip report: Norfolk (UK) to Austria in Taycan Turbo S

[Norfolkporsche]

I'm half way through the second year of owning my Turbo S, and having had a successful trip to Le Mans in June of last year, decided to try something a little longer.

My trip started on the 30 June 2023, when I drove from the North Norfolk coast down to the Brands Hatch Hotel and Spa near Maidstone, Kent to allow easy access to Eurotunnel the next morning without the criminally early start from Norfolk. There was a 50 kWh BP Pulse charger at the hotel, so I re-charged the car on arrival.

The next morning I stopped at the M20 services just before the tunnel and used IONITY to get the car to 100% charge before I got to the Eurotunnel. This meant having a good run into France without worrying about charging.

Eurotunnel was as easy as usual. Despite arriving at just after 6am, it was busy, but having booked Flexiplus meant a swift journey through the usual formalities and onto the train. I always book the wider carriage to avoid concerns about kerbing the wheels.

My first night’s stay was at Chateau de Courcelles just outside Reims. I have stayed here a number of times before, and I find it’s a good stopping point (especially when travelling from Norfolk). In reality, given my departure point was from Kent and not Norfolk, I could easily have travelled further on the first day, but I really like the hotel and it has a great restaurant.

The hotel doesn’t have a charger, but they offered use on an outside plug. I used IONITY to top the car up near Cambrai, which meant arriving at Courcelles with 85% charge. My Juice Booster topped up the charge to 100% for departure by the following morning. Shortly after my charge had completed I was joined by a lovely Carmine red Cross Turismo.

The next leg of the journey saw a drive from Reims to Obertal in the Black Forest, a 480km drive with two IONITY charge stops. The accommodation was a great Air B&B that had a 7kWh charger, so that meant I was ready to go with a 100% charge the next morning.

I found charging en-route easy and with no queues. The outside air temperature meant the battery kept a steady temperature of about 30 degrees, so I didn't bother with pre-heating the battery prior to charging. I tend to be over cautious about when I charge, so I tend to keep the charge level no lower than 30%.

To be continued.

 

[Norfolkporsche]

The third night was at the Ameron Hotel at Motorworld in Munich.

En-route, I stopped to charge at IONITY in Friedberg, and there was what looked like the new Macan EV charging. Obviously in camoflage. I tried to chat to the driver, but he was very tight-lipped!

Motorworld is a car museum, hotel and Maclaren service centre. I had seen this from one of tigerbalm’s trip reports, and I had booked a Car Studio meaning you park your car next to your bedroom. What a great place to stay.

There are only two car studios and one bike studio. I went into Munich for dinner, and on my return was able to wander round the museum with hardly anyone else present.

There were sockets within the car studio, so I connected the juice booster, and this saw the car charged to 100% for the next morning’s departure.

Check out wasn't until midday, so I had time for a relaxed breakfast and more time in the museum.

They have a Maclaren service centre as part of the Motorworld complex, and there was a fair movement of cars in and around the centre which was entertaining, not to mention various interesting cars in the car park.

 

[Norfolkporsche]

The next leg of the trip was to Kirchberg in Northern Austria. This was a short drive of 151 km.

Traffic was busy for mid-week.

I stopped at IONITY Muhldorf to charge, and all the stations were taken, but I only had to wait a few minutes until one bcame free.

I found a great property north of Salzburg - another Air B&B, and whilst it didn't have an EV charger, the owner was happy for me to use the house electricity supply to charge the car (on the basis of my offer to pay for electricity used).

Austria is a very scenic country, and I spent the next 5 days exploring the alpine roads in the Taycan.

I went to Eagles Nest (Hitler’s summer retreat) which was fascinating. It was incredibly busy even though I had arrived about an hour before the first bus up to the property (you park about 20 minutes away then are bused up to the entrance).

Most interestingly, when I left and drove down the mountain, I saw a negative consumption figure for the first time. That day showed the best consumption on the Taycan since I bought it.

The next day saw a trip to the Porsche Museum in Gmund. The roads were busier and some of the charging stations were full when I arrived, although I never had to wait for than 10 minutes.

I find EV owners to be a friendly bunch, and by the time you've been to the loo and had a chat with your neighbours, you're ready to move on.

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[Norfolkporsche]

The next day was overcast and wet, but undeterred, I decided to try the Glossglockner High Alpine Road. Being mid-week and wet, it was quiet, and it seemed I had the road to myself most of the time. There was the odd bike here and there, but I was surprised at how quiet it was.

The temperature dropped from the mid-twenties to 6.5 degrees at the top of the pass.

I returned a couple of days later on a much sunnier day (and a Saturday). It was much busier this time, but the passing power of the Turbo S is amazing, so getting past slow motorhomes was a breeze.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at the volume and availability of chargers in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria.

My first day trip out in Austria saw me due to arrive home with an expected 36% battery charge. My accommodation in Austria meant a slow 2 kWh charge, which wasn't ideal, and I much prefer setting off on the next day with a full charge. I stopped at a new(ish) Spar supermarket about 10 minutes from the house, and was astonished to see 4, 350 kWh chargers in the car park. At a Spar supermarket! My excitement was short lived when they declined two of my credit cards, then burst into life again when I tried the Porsche charge card and that worked. Given this was so close to the house, it became my default stop at the end of each day.

Conclusions

The most impressive part of the trip was the overall ability of the Taycan. I have had the car for 20 months as I write this report, and it is such a comfortable cruiser on the motorway - it is quiet (I have acoustic glass) and sure footed (no doubt due to its weight!) and level (PDCC?).

What did surprise me was how well it performed on the mountain hairpins. It was flat through the corners and balistically fast out of them.

With two more days to the trip to go, I received a call from my sister to say my mother was gravelly ill, and I needed to get back to the UK as soon as possible.

17 hours and 44 minutes later, after 910 miles, I made it to my mother’s house at 02.30 in the morning. Mum managed to hang on for another 24 hours and then sadly passed away.

There are few cars that I have owned which could complete such a long journey (in one go) with such comfort, surefootedness and quietness. I have owned a number of modern 911’s, and whilst supremely capable cars, I find the tyre noise wearing after about 5 or 6 hours. I’ve also had a number of Cayennes, but none can quite match the Taycan for comfort and speed (in my opinion at least). The closest was an Aston Martin DB9 I owned, but I still think the Taycan trumps this for long distance cruising ability.

One great bonus I found was Innodrive coupled with lane change and lane keep assist. The Innodrive helped with the adaptive cruise element and frequent speed limit changes. It's certainly not perfect, and can get confused sometimes, but I do like it. Normally, I don’t like lane keep assist, but I tell you, I welcomed a little help in the latter stages of such a long journey.

I suppose the only shortcoming is range, but I think this is peculiar to my rushed return journey. Had my holiday proceeded as planned, it would not have been an issue because I had planned overnight stays with 300 to 500 km drives each day with one or two charging stops, but I needed to get home as quickly as possible.

Through Germany, I thought I could take full advantage of the de-restricted Autobahn, but I found the battery was depleting so quickly at over 200 kph, I had to dial back the speed to about 120/130 kph to avoid too many charge stops. Plus, I don’t trust the Porsche charge planner, so have it switched off. I prefer to put my destination into the sat nav and then add my pre-chosen IONITY chargers as stop overs.

I finally got home with 8% charge and a range of 21 miles.

 

[AllanG]

Thanks for an excellent write-up of your trip, but condolences for the passing of your Mum.

 

[Norfolkporsche]

Thanks for an excellent write-up of your trip, but condolences for the passing of your Mum.

Thank you AllanG.

 

[Scandinavian]

Great write up and report. Thank you.

sorry to hear that your mum passed away, but great that you made it to say farewell!

I see That you do not trust the Charge Planner in the car. It may give some crazy charging stops en Route, but I always found it very accurate at predicting the charge level to manually planned charging stops. If left to its own it will sometimes divert yo slow chargers I agree.

 

[Norfolkporsche]

Thanks Scandinavian. I may well be doing the Charge Planner a dis-service of course. Part of the reason is that I prefer to charge at IONITY to get the discounted charge rate, and I haven't found a way to get the planner to search for those chargers only.

 

[Scandinavian]

Understod!
i have found a way around that. Just like you say the Ionity network has been reliable, but at peak demand some waiting.

what I have is to search with another charging app for the Ionity stations along the route I intend to travel. When I have found them that way or in the My Porsche app (you can set a filter in the app for only Ionity), I mark them as a favourite. There is a limit of the number of favourites you can store. Then the Ionity stations show up as a star in the app and also in the PCM! Easy way to then choose the stations you want to stop at.

See screenshot below

 

[Norfolkporsche]

Understod!
i have found a way around that. Just like you say the Ionity network has been reliable, but at peak demand some waiting.

what I have is to search with another charging app for the Ionity stations along the route I intend to travel. When I have found them that way or in the My Porsche app (you can set a filter in the app for only Ionity), I mark them as a favourite. There is a limit of the number of favourites you can store. Then the Ionity stations show up as a star in the app and also in the PCM! Easy way to then choose the stations you want to stop at.

See screenshot below

Thank you for that. I will certainly give it a try.

 

[cityhpper]

Many thanks for a great trip report. Condolances regarding your mother.

I must say, Austria is a top country as a road trip destination. Roads are well maintained, and there is a fine selection of interesting roads. Charging is no problem, either. And in the Turbo S, I can fully understand how joyfull it must have been blazing up the Gross Glockner!

 

[Norfolkporsche]

Many thanks for a great trip report. Condolances regarding your mother.

I must say, Austria is a top country as a road trip destination. Roads are well maintained, and there is a fine selection of interesting roads. Charging is no problem, either. And in the Turbo S, I can fully understand how joyfull it must have been blazing up the Gross Glockner!

Thank you cityhpper. It makes me want to do another Alpne trip next year!

 

[tigerbalm]

En-route, I stopped to charge at IONITY in Friedberg, and there was what looked like the new Macan EV charging. Obviously in camoflage. I tried to chat to the driver, but he was very tight-lipped!

Last time I was at that IONITY station – it was full of test Mercedes and equally tight-lipped drivers!

 

[Zcd1]

The third night was at the Ameron Hotel at Motorworld in Munich.

Motorworld is a car museum, hotel and Maclaren service centre. I had seen this from one of tigerbalm’s trip reports, and I had booked a Car Studio meaning you park your car next to your bedroom. What a great place to stay.

Looks like a great trip!

My company actually rented Motorworld for an evening event during a trade show many years ago - an amazing place to visit for any enthusiast!

Condolences on the loss of your mother...

 

[Norfolkporsche]

Looks like a great trip!

My company actually rented Motorworld for an evening event during a trade show many years ago - an amazing place to visit for any enthusiast!

Condolences on the loss of your mother...

Thank you Zcd1. It was one of those places that will stay in my memory for many years.

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