Taycan to the Alps 18-day road trip 2022

[tigerbalm]

Wow - Ionity, 15€, 15min for 44kWh vs. Grid serve 25€ in 40min+ for similar charge! Is it because you consciously waited for longer to get from 80% to 99%?

It is. In reality the Gridserve wasn't positioned ideally for us – we came in with too much power and needed a full battery to avoid needing another small charge somewhere.

If we wanted to just use IONITY – we'd have driven another 100 km to IONITY Cambridge which would have been perfectly located.

Also Gridserve is charging £0.45p/kWh vs IONITY which we're getting in the UK at £0.30p/kWh – a big difference.

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[tigerbalm]

Day 18: Stratford-upon-Avon (UK) -> Dublin (Ireland)

A pretty straight forward transit day home for us today. We pack up our car for the last time in the hotel underground car park.

And leave our hotel at 11:00 heading towards the port of Holyhead in the rain.

Stopping at IONITY Stafford for our final charge of this road-trip – which also happened to be the location of our first on-the-road charge – completing the circle.

Arriving at the port on-time for our fast ferry.

Queuing to board at the waters edge.

Setting the vehicle tracking service into transport mode to avoid false alarms – once on-board.

And heading up to the only deck on this small fast ferry.

And stretch out for a short nap as we cross the unusually calm Irish Sea.

Docking back into Dublin two hours later.

Driving quickly through customs and border checks.

And arrive back at our underground car-parking space under our apartment block – 6056 km later.

The days charging stats:

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
IONITY Stafford	25%	85%	59.67	€21.08	0h 26m	21.5	42	DC 350 kW	Porsche Charging Service

Today we did 363 km over 6:03 hours, with an average speed of 64 km/h, consuming 20.7 kWh/100km.

 

[tigerbalm]

That's all folks!

Thank you for following along with us on this road-trip. We really enjoyed ourselves. We think if anything – this trip shows how easy – with a little planning – a European EV road-trip now is. Everytime we do this – the infrastructure to support it gets better.

IONITY was the real hero during this trip – without that network – this would be much more difficult – and quite possibly the hassle and challenge of dealing with multiple different networks wouldn't be worth it.

Instead IONITY delivered everything we asked of it – and we look forward to even more as they execute on their expansion plan.

Best/worst

Best hotel	The Chedi, Andermatt, Switzerland
Best breakfast	InterContinental Ljubljana, Slovenia
Best driving roads	Slovenia
Best destination charge	NH Heidelberg, Germany (because we got to fully use our industrial adapters on our Juice Booster EVSE)
Best hotel parking	B'Mine Frankfurt, Germany (car lift & balcony parking)
Best dinner	Restaurant Christophorus, Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
Best pub/drinks	The Chedi, Andermatt, Switzerland
Best activity	Porsche Factory Tour
Worst hotel	Grand Hotel Toplice, Bled, Slovenia (possibly the worst hotel we've ever stayed in!)
Worst hotel parking	Grand Hotel Toplice, Bled, Slovenia
Worst destination charge	Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal, Luxembourg (valet parking said they'd charge car and didn't)

The Car

The car behaved impeccably during the entire trip. The big recent update seems to have really delivered for us. We had perfect data connection for the entire journey – not a hint of the problem we had on our Arctic Circle trip.

We travelled through eleven countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

Crossing in and out of France and Austria many times. Roaming and data connecting to each countries cellular network – including tiny Liechtenstein was flawless.

We really appreciate the work on this Porsche!

Entire-trip charging stats

During this road-trip we did 6056.1 km over 107:37 hours, with an average speed of 59 km/h, consuming 20.9 kWh/100km on average across the entire trip.

We spent a total of €318.85 on all charging, and this could have been lower if we'd stuck with IONITY more rigidly (i.e. not gone to Audi Charging Hub or Gridserve) – or sought out more free destination charging.

And a reminder that we've kept details of every charging stop up to date throughout the trip.

What next?

Planning for an epic winter trip to Iceland via Denmark and The Faroe Islands is well underway!

 

[submatrix]

Awesome report as usual, been loving following along. Someday I'm sure we would all love to also hear the total cost spent on the beautiful hotels

 

[tigerbalm]

Hotels



Because we book using hotels.com – we effectively get 10% off hotel prices by being part of their loyalty program. Hotels.com gives you one free night for every ten that you book.

 

[tigerbalm]

Awesome report as usual, been loving following along. Someday I'm sure we would all love to also hear the total cost spent on the beautiful hotels

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/taycan-to-the-alps-road-trip-2022.12402/post-187594

 

[tigerbalm]

Love the Gridserve - is this a one off ahead of a more national setup - EA have a few similar concepts built in the US although not here in Texas as yet. Looks excellent.

https://www.gridserve.com/electric-vehicle-charging/electric-forecourt/

Fairly niche – they have two open with another in the works. But they very much have a "playbook" now for this kind of setup. Will be interesting to see how their investments perform. If it goes well, I can see a traditional energy (oil) company being interested as a way of jumpstarting their green credentials.

I also like that they are harvesting their own solar energy to supply the forecourts – they aren't buying it from the grid.

https://www.gridserve.com/energy/

 

[Manyana]

Thank you Damien for a wonderful travel blog.
I feel like I have just done a driving holiday through Europe, without leaving home!
Great photos, maps and directions.
Your Taycan sounds like a fantastic car, can’t wait to get mine, sometime next year.

 

[NeilJ]

That's all folks!

Thank you for following along with us on this road-trip. We really enjoyed ourselves. We think if anything – this trip shows how easy – with a little planning – a European EV road-trip now is. Everytime we do this – the infrastructure to support it gets better.

IONITY was the real hero during this trip – without that network – this would be much more difficult – and quite possibly the hassle and challenge of dealing with multiple different networks wouldn't be worth it.

Instead IONITY delivered everything we asked of it – and we look forward to even more as they execute on their expansion plan.

Best/worst

Best hotel	The Chedi, Andermatt, Switzerland
Best breakfast	InterContinental Ljubljana, Slovenia
Best driving roads	Slovenia
Best destination charge	NH Heidelberg, Germany (because we got to fully use our industrial adapters on our Juice Booster EVSE)
Best hotel parking	B'Mine Frankfurt, Germany (car lift & balcony parking)
Best dinner	Restaurant Christophorus, Porsche Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
Best pub/drinks	The Chedi, Andermatt, Switzerland
Best activity	Porsche Factory Tour
Worst hotel	Grand Hotel Toplice, Bled, Slovenia (possibly the worst hotel we've ever stayed in!)
Worst hotel parking	Grand Hotel Toplice, Bled, Slovenia
Worst destination charge	Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal, Luxembourg (valet parking said they'd charge car and didn't)

The Car

The car behaved impeccably during the entire trip. The big recent update seems to have really delivered for us. We had perfect data connection for the entire journey – not a hint of the problem we had on our Arctic Circle trip.

We travelled through eleven countries: Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

Crossing in and out of France and Austria many times. Roaming and data connecting to each countries cellular network – including tiny Liechtenstein was flawless.

We really appreciate the work on this Porsche!

Entire-trip charging stats

During this road-trip we did 6056.1 km over 107:37 hours, with an average speed of 59 km/h, consuming 20.9 kWh/100km on average across the entire trip.

We spent a total of €318.85 on all charging, and this could have been lower if we'd stuck with IONITY more rigidly (i.e. not gone to Audi Charging Hub or Gridserve) – or sought out more free destination charging.

And a reminder that we've kept details of every charging stop up to date throughout the trip.

What next?

Planning for an epic winter trip to Iceland via Denmark and The Faroe Islands is well underway!

Another fantastic and inspiring report - thank you.

 

[B61]

Planning for an epic winter trip to Iceland via Denmark and The Faroe Islands is well underway!

Amazing!
It will be very hard wait to see your next report!

 

[B61]

Hotels
Because we book using hotels.com – we effectively get 10% off hotel prices by being part of their loyalty program. Hotels.com gives you one free night for every ten that you book.

No discount for smelly room @Bled?

 

[tigerbalm]

No discount for smelly room @Bled?

Free parking!

 

[B61]

Free parking!

That's nothing.
It's a huge shame for 5 stars hotel. Afaik, it's the most expensive in that area, but it looks that years of poor maintenance are coming to the light...
I do know a member of the board (of the whole chain) and I'll send him a link...

 

[tigerbalm]

That's nothing.
It's a huge shame for 5 stars hotel. Afaik, it's the most expensive in that area, but it looks that years of poor maintenance are coming to the light...
I do know a member of the board (of the whole chain) and I'll send him a link...

Agreed. It is worth mentioning that the nearby hotel we booked – and we didn't know this at the time of "emergency" booking it – the Rikli Balance Hotel – is run by the same local company. It was recently renovated, was welcoming, pleasant and excellent. So the group knows how to run a hotel but the 5-star property we picked – was genuinely terrible.

For me – a big part of running a 5-star hotel is that you keep the promises you make to guests. That means a lot to us – as we ask for so little and like to go with the flow. We'd like to see ourselves as not being demanding – we're on holidays – in a good mood – and want to have positive and pleasant interactions with staff (who are at work!).

Let me give you an example at this property – Grand Hotel Toplice. On check-in we couldn't use the destination chargers they had on-site due to "security situation" with the on-going event. However, they said that would end very shortly and they'd ring us when it did and we could then move our car and get a charge.

The call never came and so on leaving the property the next day – our car sat uncharged beside perfectly functional and unused 22 kW chargers. Luckily there is an IONITY station outside the town – so we could top up - but it was in the wrong direction - so an hour later we passed back by the hotel again with a fully topped up battery.

Really for 5-star hotel – they should have stuck to their promise. Minor thing in the "big picture" – but we remember it – and it can't be excused by just being lumbered with an old building.

That evening in the companies other property – the Rikli Balance Hotel – a great newer 4-star hotel – the same kind of chargers were available. The check-in staff couldn't do enough for us to ensure that we got our (free) charge.

 

[tigerbalm]

but it looks that years of poor maintenance are coming to the light..

If we heard that the police had found bodies under the floorboards of that hotel – my co-driver and I would go: "yep, that explains it".

It was that bad!

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