Western Europe Taycan road-trip report

[tigerbalm]

I thought it would be interesting to write about our experiences on our first road-trip with the Taycan 4S. For those interested in the exact spec, the Porsche Code is PMFBLBS1.

So the high-level route over the next two weeks are:

Ireland -> France -> Switzerland -> Italy -> Austria -> Germany -> France -> Ireland.

All day report posts:

Day 1: Dublin (Ireland) -> Cherbourg (France)
Day 2: Cherbourg (France) -> Cabourg (France)
Day 3: Cabourg (France) -> Dijon (France)
Day 4: Dijon (France) -> Lausanne (Switzerland)
Day 5: Lausanne (Switzerland) -> Zermatt (Switzerland)
Day 6: Zermatt (Switzerland) -> Andermatt (Switzerland)
Day 7: Mountain Passes and Valley Floors (Switzerland)
Day 8: Andermatt (Switzerland) -> Lake Garda (Italy)
Day 9: Lake Garda (Italy)
Day 10: Lake Garda (Italy) -> Lienz (Austria)
Day 11: Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Austria)
Day 12: Lienz (Austria) -> Salzburg (Austria) ?
Day 13: Salzburg (Austria) -> Stuttgart (Germany)
Day 14: Stuttgart (Germany) -> Karlsruhe (Germany) + Porsche Museum
Day 15: Karlsruhe (Germany) -> Freiburg (Germany)
Day 16: Freiburg (Germany) -> Paris (France)
Day 17: Paris (France) -> Cherbourg (France)
Day 18: Cherbourg (France) -> Dublin (Ireland)

Additional info:

Route Planning with Porsche Connect App
Stickers on our windscreen
What's in our frunk?
Luggage: How do we carry our belongings?
Our travel EVSE: Juice Booster 2
Hotels that we stayed at during the trip.
How much did we spend on charging?
Features and Options in the car we valued


----------------------------------------------------------

Day 1: Dublin (Ireland) -> Cherbourg (France)

I boarded the Irish Ferries ferry W.B. Yeats (built in Germany) for the 18 hour crossing to Cherbourg, France. I had booked an on-board EV charger – there are many on board. The ferry company takes these pretty seriously and they board/route you separately from the regular car traffic. They don't charge for the use of them, but they need to be requested at booking time.

The chargers are 3 kW level 2/type 2 – bring your own cable – as they are untethered.

I thought the cabins (for two) are comfortable for a car ferry.

Car charged with no issues – not the cleanest source of electricity – a marine diesel engine – but all worked well and I disembarked the ship with 100% charge.

Here are the days charging stats:

Location​	Start SOC %​	End SOC %​	kWh added​	Cost​	Duration​	Ambient Temp​	Battery Temp​	Charger Type​	Network​
Ferry​	43%​	100%​	48.56​	€0.00​	18 hours​	20​	25​	Type 2​	N/A​

 

[REIL]

Day 1 - Friday Sept 3

I thought it would be interesting to blog about my experiences on my first road-trip with my Taycan 4S. For those interested in the exact spec, the Porsche Code is PMFBLBS1.

So the high-level route over the next two weeks are:

Ireland -> France -> Switzerland -> Italy -> Austria -> Germany -> France -> Ireland.

I boarded the Irish Ferries ferry W.B. Yeats (build in Germany) for the 18 hour crossing to Cherbourg, France. I had booked an on-board EV charger – there are many on board. The ferry company takes these pretty seriously and they board/route you separately from the regular car traffic. They don't charge for the use of them, but they need to be requested at booking time.

The chargers are 3 kW level 2/type 2 – bring your own cable – as they are untethered.

I thought the cabins (for two) are comfortable for a car ferry.

Car charged with no issues – not the cleanest source of electricity – a marine diesel engine – but all worked well and I disembarked the ship with 100% charge.

Here are the days charging stats:

Location​	Start SOC %​	End SOC %​	kWh added​	Cost​	Duration​	Ambient Temp​	Battery Temp​	Charger Type​	Network​
Ferry​	43%​	100%​	48.56​	€0.00​	18 hours​	20​	25​	Type 2​	N/A​

I look forward to reading about your adventures as I am certain many on the forum will be.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to document this.

 

[faroutinNM]

Day 1 - Friday Sept 3

I thought it would be interesting to blog about my experiences on my first road-trip with my Taycan 4S. For those interested in the exact spec, the Porsche Code is PMFBLBS1.

So the high-level route over the next two weeks are:

Ireland -> France -> Switzerland -> Italy -> Austria -> Germany -> France -> Ireland.

Looks like you'll get to drive some scenic mountain roads, and taste some excellent beers, wines and food.

Bon voyage!
?‍ ????

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 2: Cherbourg (France) -> Cabourg (France)

So first touristy pit-stop wasn't far from where we docked. I really enjoy submarine's and if a city has one as a museum I'll visit it! This was only a few meters from where we docked – though we had to drive a circuitous route to get through border control first. Passport + COVID vaccine cert/QR code and we're through. The EU has done a good job of making this work seamlessly across borders.

This was the most modern (and only nuclear) submarine I've ever been on (70s tech) – the audio guide in English was excellent.

After the submarine the plan was to take it easy to our first hotel – Hôtel & Spa Les bains de Cabourg – on the Normandy coast. The drive was easy, stuck to the posted limits – with many being 90 km/h was hard – and we didn't hit any traffic.

Starting to already see value in the Innodrive and Active Lane Keeping Assist - just takes a little bit of the workload off of you.

Parking at the hotel was a perfect setup to use the Auto Park feature. I tapped the park button, drove past the space (where the charger was between two cars). My car quickly identified the spot but refused to actually park in it! Pointless feature, but I will persist to see if it ever helps. I give up and park manually - with ease.

Hotel has a few Tesla Level 2 chargers which I managed to "coax" to work with my Taycan! They delivered a solid 6.5 kW.

Destination charging – when it works out – is really a dream situation. It feels genuinely better than ICE cars – to come out to a fully charged car in the morning.

Here are the days charging stats:

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Hôtel & Spa Les bains de Cabourg by Thalazur, Cabourg, France	60%	100%	37.36	€0.00	6 hours	22	30	Type 2	Tesla Destination Charger

 

[B61]

So, you spent about 40% SoC for 145km?
BTW; keep us posting & enjoy your trip in Europe.
you should consider a route from Italy (Venecia, Trieste) to Slovenia and then to Austria….

 

[tigerbalm]

So, you spent about 40% SoC for 145km?

It was exactly 174km with a few detours we took to some D-Day sites.

 

[tigerbalm]

Here is a link to the charging log that I am keeping - which might have a little bit more info (like distances) than I post to the thread:

https://www.icloud.com/numbers/04HH5JXkv57C8HJ86YCW-UeJA#Charging_Log

 

[Dlurker20]

I love this log. I’ve done a few trips now, nothing as extensive as you’re doing and a lot of others have reported on here, but enough that I’m comfortable with the planning and charging when it works. When the charger doesn’t work that’s when the anxiety monster kicks in and I start searching frantically for the next closest spot. Fortunately I’ve been able to pull through with no real problems, just some unexpected stress. I hope your experience in Europe is better than US. Keep posting, we’re living vicariously through you!

 

[Perry]

Hotel has a few Tesla Level 2 chargers which I managed to "coax" to work with my Taycan! They delivered a solid 6.5 kW.

Can you expand a bit what you mean by this? I‘d assume that any Type 2 charger would just work with any modern BEV. Did you have to do anything different except ignoring the Tesla logo printed on the charger?

 

[Wild-Atlantic-Way]

Day 1 - Friday Sept 3

I thought it would be interesting to blog about my experiences on my first road-trip with my Taycan 4S. For those interested in the exact spec, the Porsche Code is PMFBLBS1.

So the high-level route over the next two weeks are:

Ireland -> France -> Switzerland -> Italy -> Austria -> Germany -> France -> Ireland.

I boarded the Irish Ferries ferry W.B. Yeats (built in Germany) for the 18 hour crossing to Cherbourg, France. I had booked an on-board EV charger – there are many on board. The ferry company takes these pretty seriously and they board/route you separately from the regular car traffic. They don't charge for the use of them, but they need to be requested at booking time.

The chargers are 3 kW level 2/type 2 – bring your own cable – as they are untethered.

I thought the cabins (for two) are comfortable for a car ferry.

Car charged with no issues – not the cleanest source of electricity – a marine diesel engine – but all worked well and I disembarked the ship with 100% charge.

Here are the days charging stats:

Location​	Start SOC %​	End SOC %​	kWh added​	Cost​	Duration​	Ambient Temp​	Battery Temp​	Charger Type​	Network​
Ferry​	43%​	100%​	48.56​	€0.00​	18 hours​	20​	25​	Type 2​	N/A​

Thanks for posting, picking up my 4S in 2 weeks time hopefully, and shortly after will be road tripping from Ireland to Poland and back to Ireland, so great info here?
Enjoy the trip and look forward to seeing you on the road in Ireland…??

 

[tigerbalm]

Can you expand a bit what you mean by this? I‘d assume that any Type 2 charger would just work with any modern BEV. Did you have to do anything different except ignoring the Tesla logo printed on the charger?

When Tesla install destination chargers, they usually install three. 2 x Tesla only ones and 1 x any EV. The Tesla only ones are Type 2 chargers but have been set to only work if a Tesla is plugged in. I am unsure of the exact mechanism the charger is capable of detecting its a Tesla, but they have a way.

The Tesla only chargers will have a red sign saying "Tesla Vehicles" and the other charger will have a white sign saying "Electric Vehicle" - which is how you can tell them apart. You'll see the red Tesla only sign behind me in my picture.

This can be disabled by opening up the charger and setting some DIP switches to convert it into a Type 2 charger that will charge any EV. Some chargers overtime, seem to have these settings flipped as hotels don't really care and probably increasingly want their chargers to be more versatile now that there are a lot of EV brands turning up at their door.

I have discovered that if the DIP switches aren't set, you can *sometimes* trick the charger to start if you reset it a few times and have your Taycan plugged in while its rebooting. After a few attempts it can work – seems like there might be timing issues with the vehicle detecting code.

So when I said "coax" that is what I did in this case!

 

[tigerbalm]

Thanks for posting, picking up my 4S in 2 weeks time hopefully, and shortly after will be road tripping from Ireland to Poland and back to Ireland, so great info here?
Enjoy the trip and look forward to seeing you on the road in Ireland…??

That's great - exciting times – super to see more Taycan's on Irish roads. That will be a very interesting trip.

 

[Scandinavian]

So, you spent about 40% SoC for 145km?
BTW; keep us posting & enjoy your trip in Europe.
you should consider a route from Italy (Venecia, Trieste) to Slovenia and then to Austria….

I mad the same observation, but the explanation has been given. However I see the route that was planned is done by walking. So driving may give a different route and different mileage.

The consumption figures as kWh/100 km as well as the average speed per the car would be interesting to see please. Especially when you will be driving in more hilly terrain later?

 

[Scandinavian]

It was exactly 174km with a few detours we took to some D-Day sites.

Thanks for sharing the data and your experiences. Looking forward to seeing more of this over the next weeks.

Good to see that the trick with the Tesla destination chargers worked out. But as you say there are quite a few hotels etc that have opened up the chargers to other EV’s as well.

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 3: Cabourg (France) -> Dijon (France)

Today is a "transit" day – moving around 530 km closer to Switzerland and staying overnight at a pitstop hotel – Holiday Inn Dijon – just off the autoroute. Today was the first in this trip where the destination is further away than the range of the car – so high-speed public charging required.

With a wide range of Ionity chargers available on the route, I just kept planning simple and entered our hotel as the destination in the PCM Navigation and left Porsche Intelligent Range Manager (PIRM) do all the work. It picked a sensible one-stop strategy (IONITY Nemours) with me arriving into my hotel with around 30%, in-case I don't get destination charging.

Shortly after leaving Paris behind us, the A6 autoroute was closed for an accident for over two hours. It looked serious with helicopter landing on the road, etc. Sitting in the midday sun of around 30C degrees, the car used up around 1% of battery per hour keeping the air-conditioning running and inching forward in traffic for most of it.

The planned IONITY charging session went well with a peak of 260kW and staying over 100kW until we hit 80% battery charge.

I like these "fuel pump" style layout over the "parking space" one. Much more Taycan friendly. These had sun covers too – which was welcomed.

A relatively easy trip then from the public charger to my destination charger for the night at the hotel. All chargers (2 x Tesla; 1 x Any EV) were available.

Getting 13.3 kW from the charger, so "slightly" putting my 22 kW AC charger to use.

Here are the days charging stats:

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Nemours, France	21%	92%	66.12	€21.82	32 mins	29.5	34	DC 350kW	IONITY
Holiday Inn, Dijon, France	30%	100%	58.59	€0.00	5 hours	28.5	33	AC 22kW	Tesla Destination Charger

Average speed was 112 km/h (taking out the road closure delay) with an average consumption of 22.0 kWh/100km.