Western Europe Taycan road-trip report

[WalterG]

What an awesome thread!! Thanks for taking the time to post and share your experiences - fun diary of the trip and great info for road tripping in our Taycans! Looks like you're having a super trip

Sponsored

 

[xy911jk]

Route Planning with Porsche Connect app [Video Clip]
* I am a paying subscriber.

If you have time, stop over in Sirmione, the tiny peninsula on the south, between Peschiera and Desenzano. Nice little town and ruins of the Ist century B.C. villa attributed to the Roman poet Catullus.

 

[NeilJ]

Thanks so much for your postings. This is very similar to a trip we’ve done numerous times in ICE cars and plan to do next June in the Taycan. It’s great to have so many memories evoked, and to have such useful information as we begin to plan next year. Thanks again.

 

[tigerbalm]

Found the Porsche Destination Charger at our hotel. Quite an unusual installation.

PlugShare link: https://www.plugshare.com/location/308497

 

[tigerbalm]

If you have time, stop over in Sirmione, the tiny peninsula on the south, between Peschiera and Desenzano. Nice little town and ruins of the Ist century B.C. villa attributed to the Roman poet Catullus.

Hi @xy911jk – thank you for the recommendation. Though I only saw your post after today's drive, we actually did go down that peninsula. We were hoping to grab some food there but the parking situation was tricky – it was very busy there today (Saturday). It did look really nice and some really nice properties and restaurants along there.

Thanks again for the suggestion and I'm glad we did get to see it.

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 9: Lake Garda (Italy)

A simple day's sightseeing today - one lap around Lake Garda – taking it easy.

The weather was glorious – between 24C and 30C degrees. We travelled around the lake in a counter-clockwise direction – and it appeared to have been the right decision traffic wise – we hit very few jams compared to cars coming against us.

I found parking more challenging than the traffic – every space was at a premium – especially near interesting or eating spots. At one stage I did something I never do – stopped at a charger just to use the spot – even though I didn't need the power. It turned out the charger wasn't working so I didn't feel so bad then!

Today was a comfortable distance and the battery range wasn't something we had to remotely think about. I stayed in Sport mode for most of the day – a rare thing for me – as there was an endless amount of roundabouts to traverse and the average Italian driver doesn't tolerate any delaying

The AC on "eco"-mode easily handled the outside air temperatures and we made good use of the ventilated seats option – something that rarely gets use back home in Ireland.

The days charging stats:

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Limone Sul Garda, Italy	92%	69%	20.079	€0.00	1.75 hours	26.0	31	AC 22kW	Hotel

Today we did 155km over 4:48 hours, with an average speed of 33km/h, consuming 20.2 kWh/100km.

 

[Scandinavian]

Route Planning

Route planning via the Porsche Connect app has become indispensable. We use it to plan each day's route and value its accuracy in terms of calculating battery consumption and charging stops. It uses the same algorithms that the car itself uses and I've found it more accurate than A Better Route Planner app*.

Being able to send the entire route with stopovers (waypoints) to the car ahead of going out to it is also very useful – and saves typing everything into the PCM keyboard itself.

Route Planning with Porsche Connect app [Video Clip]

* I am a paying subscriber.

Very interesting. My experience is not at all similar. Trying to plan with the connect app brings me Ona huge diversion for charging.
The car however is doing a good and realistic plan, but my app is way off. I need to go through all the settings in t he app to check.

Thanks for sharing

 

[riburn3]

Beautiful.

Navigating those narrow Italian lakeside roads is a real gut check. I don't know if I would have the stones to do it in a Taycan.

A few years back I vacationed around Lake Como, and just getting to and from the Villa, I saw several cars have their side view mirrors knocked off along the route, and ultimately our rental vehicle lost a passenger side mirror. Half the public busses all had large gashes and damage to their side mirrors haha

 

[dwaltchack]

best thread ever.

 

[Lupin]

I really love this thread. Thanks for posting.
I shall be doing my first Taycan European road trip in a couple of weeks, from Oxford(UK) to Lake Como. I will cover some of the same route as you. I only plan to stop for one night, so It is great to hear that the Ionity network is reliable as I will be using it a lot.

 

[xy911jk]

Beautiful.

Navigating those narrow Italian lakeside roads is a real gut check. I don't know if I would have the stones to do it in a Taycan.

I agree. Moreover, it must be noted that @tigerbalm has his driver seat on the right side of the car, while he needs to overtake to the left (in Italy even on highways). I would be stuck behind a Cinquecento for ever...

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 10: Lake Garda (Italy) -> Lienz (Austria)

Today we leave Italy and head north-eastwards to Austria.

Annoyingly our hotel plugged out the car overnight before it had finished charging – leaving it at 92%.

That was actually enough for us to easily reach our destination – but as ever not knowing the exact situation at our new hotel, we decided we'd stop off again – as we were passing – in IONIY Trento for a quick "safety" charge – staying there for 15 minutes.

To double up on our time there – we took the opportunity to clean our glass and front bumpers.

We then headed north east over the beautiful Dolomite Mountains - the road here being wide, smooth and motorway like.

The tolls were dispatched with ease – just like a local – with our "Bip & Go" toll device attached to our windscreen.

With the passenger display continuing to give a great perspective of the terrain relief to my co-driver:

Before dropping down into the town of Lienz – our home for the next two days.

At our hotel – Grandhotel Lienz – destination charging is actually a paid option – the first we've seen so far on this trip. However, I understand the need for expanding a business model. If we want more EV chargers at destinations, we may need to be willing to pay for them.

The Porsche Charging Service RFID card started the charger immediately. This is my first time using it on this trip for an AC charge – so there is a time element alongside a kW energy charge. Of course, with the time charge – 5c/minute – you want the charger to give you as much power as quickly as possible. In this case it was delivering around 13 kW out of the possible 22 kW my car can take on AC charging.

One other consideration is that the time cost continues to charge as long as you are plugged in – even if you have finished charging – to encourage you to free up the charger. That means you'll want to watch for the "charging finished" push notification from the car and plug out to stop the cost adding up.

They were also an unusual distance away from where the parking spot ended – thankfully my 3-phase AC charging cable is plenty long enough.

Back to a lovely mountain view from our hotel balcony.

The days charging stats:

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Trento, Italy	76%	97%	17.57	€5.27	15 minutes	27.5	33	DC 350 kW	IONITY
Lienz, Austria	49%	100%	42.68	€17.85 Energy: €16.64 Time: €1.21	2 hours 12 minutes	23	31	AC 22kW	Porsche Charging Service

 

[tigerbalm]

I agree. Moreover, it must be noted that @tigerbalm has his driver seat on the right side of the car, while he needs to overtake to the left (in Italy even on highways). I would be stuck behind a Cinquecento for ever...

Lane Change Assist (lights in mirrors) is invaluable when driving "on the wrong side".

 

[W1NGE]

The best thread by far on this forum!

 

[tigerbalm]

Stickers on our windscreen

I was pleased that Austria can issue you their toll pass digitally and not require another sticker!