Taycan to Lofoten Islands, Norway (Follow Our Trip Report)

Introduction

After much drama with a DC failure of our Taycan Turbo S – it was fixed with one day to spare before we head off on our latest winter road trip to Norway.

We have completed our planning and leave early tomorrow morning on a ferry to the United Kingdom – the first of six international crossings on this trip.

We are going to tweak the format of this road-trip report – mostly because we’re covering similar routes that we’ve done previously. The focus of this trip is photographing the northern lights and for the first time on a winter trip – we’re staying in the same place for three days – to maximise our chances of doing so.

Instead of daily updates, we’re going to split this trip report into sections: Getting to Oslo, Getting to Lofoten, Exploring Lofoten, and Getting Home. So much of travel in this region is weather and snowfall related– so we will be sharing our experiences of that live – in short daily posts as appropriate. It has been stormy with persistent snowfalls recently in northern Norway – with many of our planned routes either closed or open for column driving only.

We will continue to capture our charging, routing and efficiency data and will share that at the end of each section and an overall charging log at the end.



Our high-level route

Ireland -> United Kingdom –> Netherlands –> Germany –> Denmark –> Norway –> Germany –> Netherlands –> United Kingdom –> Ireland

Full-resolution photos

All the photos we share will be available at full resolution on this Flickr photo album including full EXIF data.

Apple Music

If you are an Apple Music subscriber you can listen along to some of the music that's accompanying us on our trip via our BOSE audio system and the car's in-built Apple Music player, streamed over the roaming data connection provided by Porsche.

Charging Log

We'll publish a full combined charging log at the end of the trip. Additionally, to help support the services we use in our own planning – we'll be submitting photos and charging experiences back to the PlugShare and MyPorsche apps.

Charging Networks

We plan to use the following charging networks, alongside some hotel destination charging:

• IONITY (via Porsche Charging Service Plug&Charge or RFID card). This is every European Taycan owners primary charging network. IONITY have opened up some new stations north of the arctic circle since our trip last year.
• Mer (via RFID fob): This is a popular Norwegian charging service with many chargers at remote locations and common north of the arctic circle.
• Circle K (via ApplePay tap). Popular service station chain in Norway that are increasingly installing 300 kW chargers – useful as a backup.
• Tesla (via Tesla app): Select supercharging stations open to all cars. Tesla provides some fast charging options north of the arctic circle.

Hotels

Additionally, we'll publish a full hotel log at the end of the trip. We use – as much as possible – hotels.com to book accommodation as it gives a 10% discount (via 1 night free every 10 nights booked) and easy management and cancellation of bookings.

Emissions regulations & Tolls

We have already enrolled our car and registration plate with the authorities in Germany and Norway – so that we can avail of access to low emissions zones in cities and preferential toll rates.

Tyres

Our car has the 20-inch Taycan Tequipment Design winter wheel-and-tyre set fitted with Pirelli P Zero Winter R20 XL Elect NF0.

Front axle: 245/45 R20 103V XL tyres
Rear axle: 285/40 R20 108V XL tyres

With two people in our four seater car, luggage for nearly three weeks and frunk full of technical equipment, we're running on a 0.1 bar higher pressure then the officially recommended part-load tyre pressures:

Front tyres: 2.8 bar
Rear tyres: 2.6 bar

With the slightly higher pressure to account for luggage & equipment and the lower air temperature we'll experience in the arctic. We'll keep on eye on the tyre pressure each day to account for local atmospheric conditions.



Additionally we carry the official Porsche snow chains for the Taycan.



Road-trip series

Welcome to our latest road-trip adventure in our continuing series:

2021

• Taycan to Western Europe
• Taycan to the Scottish Highlands

2022

• Taycan to the Arctic Circle
• Taycan to the Alps

2023

• Taycan to Tromsø
• Taycan to Switzerland & Austria

Join us

The PCM has been keeping an eye on the weather.



And the pink pigs are raring to go!



We hope you'll join us on this 5000 km journey over 16 days – through six countries as we road-trip across beautiful Northern Europe experiencing the pristine arctic and chasing the northern lights.

In particular we welcome all the new and awaiting delivery Taycan owner's – we hope these road-trip reports give you the confidence to use your Porsche on your own wonderful adventures. Please feel free to ask questions along the way.

If you would like to be notified of each update to this travel log – you can use the "watch" function on the top right of this post to follow along.

Daily Reports

Day 1: Dublin (Ireland) -> Harwich (United Kingdom)
Day 2: Hook of Holland (Netherlands) -> Ålborg (Denmark)
Day 3: Aalborg (Denmark) –> Oslo (Norway)
Day 4: Oslo (Norway) –> Trondheim (Norway)
Day 5: Trondheim (Norway) –> Mo i Rana (Norway)
Day 6: Mo i Rana (Norway) –> Narvik (Norway)
Day 7: Narvik (Norway) –> Lofoten (Norway)
Day 8: Lofoten (Norway)
Day 9: Exploring Lofoten
Day 10: Lofoten (Norway) –> Bødo (Norway)
Day 11: Bødo (Norway) –> Mosjøen (Norway)
Day 12: Mosjøen (Norway) –> Trondheim (Norway)
Day 13: Trondheim (Norway) –> Oslo (Norway)
Day 14: Oslo (norway) –> Kiel (Germany)
Day 15: Kiel (Germany) –> Hook of Holland (The Netherlands)
Day 16: Port of Harwich (United Kingdom) –> Dublin (Ireland)

Other posts & information

First charge went great @ IONITY Stafford
Queuing for Holland
Arctic Circle
Winter Tyres
IONITY buildout in Scandinavia
Pizza time
Other Taycan destination charging
Photography Day
Bye Norway & Thank you!
Sea sickness
Norwegian arctic winter grime
That's all folks!
Anatomy of a Norwegian Speed Check
Driving in snow

Charging Log

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Have a great trip @tigerbalm! And I really hope you are lucky to see (and hear) the Aurora Borealis in Norway this time!

Looking forward to seeing your trip reports!

+1

Have a great trip! There's been a lot of "weather" these first few weeks of 2024. Just make sure you don't make a wrong turn into the x-country ski trails. It happens quite frequently.

perski said:

Have a great trip! There's been a lot of "weather" these first few weeks of 2024. Just make sure you don't make a wrong turn into the x-country ski trails. It happens quite frequently.

Click to expand...

Yes, we've been watching it. They struggled to keep the E6 open over the Saltfjellet for a few days. Forecast looking more favourable at the moment

Already a seasoned motorist in the arctic; so this should be a walk in the park for @tigerbalm and his co-pilot. Enjoy your trip!

First charge went great @ IONITY Stafford.

Instant 265 kW of energy flowing. We think we can safely put our charging woes behind us and the car is back behaving perfectly.

Two of the six chargers were broken though – thankfully the station was as quiet as we have seen it.

tigerbalm said:

Introduction

After much drama with a DC failure of our Taycan Turbo S – it was fixed with one day to spare before we head off on our latest winter road trip to Norway.

We have completed our planning and leave early tomorrow morning on a ferry to the United Kingdom – the first of six international crossings on this trip.

We are going to tweak the format of this road-trip report – mostly because we’re covering similar routes that we’ve done previously. The focus of this trip is photographing the northern lights and for the first time on a winter trip – we’re staying in the same place for three days – to maximise our chances of doing so.

Instead of daily updates, we’re going to split this trip report into sections: Getting to Oslo, Getting to Lofoten, Exploring Lofoten, and Getting Home. So much of travel in this region is weather and snowfall related– so we will be sharing our experiences of that live – in short daily posts as appropriate. It has been stormy with persistent snowfalls recently in northern Norway – with many of our planned routes either closed or open for column driving only.

We will continue to capture our charging, routing and efficiency data and will share that at the end of each section and an overall charging log at the end.



Our high-level route

Ireland -> United Kingdom –> Netherlands –> Germany –> Denmark –> Norway –> Germany –> Netherlands –> United Kingdom –> Ireland

Full-resolution photos

All the photos we share will be available at full resolution on this Flickr photo album including full EXIF data.

Apple Music

If you are an Apple Music subscriber you can listen along to some of the music that's accompanying us on our trip via our BOSE audio system and the car's in-built Apple Music player, streamed over the roaming data connection provided by Porsche.

Charging Log

We'll publish a full combined charging log at the end of the trip. Additionally, to help support the services we use in our own planning – we'll be submitting photos and charging experiences back to the PlugShare and MyPorsche apps.

Charging Networks

We plan to use the following charging networks, alongside some hotel destination charging:

• IONITY (via Porsche Charging Service Plug&Charge or RFID card). This is every European Taycan owners primary charging network. IONITY have opened up some new stations north of the arctic circle since our trip last year.
• Mer (via RFID fob): This is a popular Norwegian charging service with many chargers at remote locations and common north of the arctic circle.
• Circle K (via ApplePay tap). Popular service station chain in Norway that are increasingly installing 300 kW chargers – useful as a backup.
• Tesla (via Tesla app): Select supercharging stations open to all cars. Tesla provides some fast charging options north of the arctic circle.

Hotels

Additionally, we'll publish a full hotel log at the end of the trip. We use – as much as possible – hotels.com to book accommodation as it gives a 10% discount (via 1 night free every 10 nights booked) and easy management and cancellation of bookings.

Emissions regulations & Tolls

We have already enrolled our car and registration plate with the authorities in Germany and Norway – so that we can avail of access to low emissions zones in cities and preferential toll rates.

Tyres

Our car has the 20-inch Taycan Tequipment Design winter wheel-and-tyre set fitted with Pirelli P Zero Winter R20 XL Elect NF0.

Front axle: 245/45 R20 103V XL tyres
Rear axle: 285/40 R20 108V XL tyres

With two people in our four seater car, luggage for nearly three weeks and frunk full of technical equipment, we're running on a 0.1 bar higher pressure then the officially recommended part-load tyre pressures:

Front tyres: 2.8 bar
Rear tyres: 2.6 bar

With the slightly higher pressure to account for luggage & equipment and the lower air temperature we'll experience in the arctic. We'll keep on eye on the tyre pressure each day to account for local atmospheric conditions.

Additionally we carry the official Porsche snow chains for the Taycan.

Road-trip series

Welcome to our latest road-trip adventure in our continuing series:

2021

• Taycan to Western Europe
• Taycan to the Scottish Highlands

2022

• Taycan to the Arctic Circle
• Taycan to the Alps

2023

• Taycan to Tromsø
• Taycan to Switzerland & Austria

Join us

The PCM has been keeping an eye on the weather.

And the pink pigs are raring to go!



We hope you'll join us on this 5000 km journey over 16 days – through six countries as we road-trip across beautiful Northern Europe experiencing the pristine arctic and chasing the northern lights.

In particular we welcome all the new and awaiting delivery Taycan owner's – we hope these road-trip reports give you the confidence to use your Porsche on your own wonderful adventures. Please feel free to ask questions along the way.

If you would like to be notified of each update to this travel log – you can use the "watch" function on the top right of this post to follow along.

Click to expand...

Safe trip!

P.S. You don't have to travel that far to see the Northern Lights but then it wouldn't be as much fun!

W1NGE said:

Safe trip!

P.S. You don't have to travel that far to see the Northern Lights but then it wouldn't be as much fun!

Click to expand...

We kicked off this route plan in our local pub in Dublin in November, without realising the northern lights were visible overhead us that night! So they really are only an "anchor" for a trip we'd make anyways!

Cool! Drive safe!

Will follow your trip here. When in NL?

Lofoten will be such a cool place to end up. The scenery is stunning.

We are going there for a second time this year … but the drive is a bit far so we will hire an EV at the nearest airport (still 3 hours away). We have driven from the UK to the fjord country but northern Norway is a whole odyssey further!

Make sure you go down to the bakery in Å for the world’s best cinnamon rolls.
https://www.museumnord.no/en/exhibition/the-bakery-at-a/

Donar said:

Cool! Drive safe!

Will follow your trip here. When in NL?

Click to expand...

Currently queuing for the overnight ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland (Rotterdam). Arriving into Netherlands at 08:00 and then driving through to Germany and the autobahn.

Day 1: Dublin (Ireland) -> Harwich (United Kingdom)


An early start to this trip as we leave our apartment at 06:30 for Dublin Port via the 4km long Dublin Port Tunnel under the city. The roads are quiet at this time on a Saturday morning and we are in the check-in queue 15 minutes later.

The first two days of this road-trip are all about getting to Norway as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is our third trip and each time we’ve taken a different route – with our first being massively influenced by COVID restrictions at the time.

This time, we were convinced we’d picked the quickest and most direct route possible from Ireland – but we recently found another option that would get us to Norway nearly a day earlier. Still this route should be quite efficient.

This morning we take the first of two Stena Line ferries – firstly to Holyhead in Wales and then across the United Kingdom to pick-up the overnight Harwich ferry to the Netherlands.



While waiting in the queue, we remember to set Porsche Vehicle Tracking Tracking (PVTS+) to transport mode, with the aid of a comprehensive collection of pre-set Apple Reminders during our planning phase.




We board after about an hours wait – the ship is running about thirty minutes behind schedule .



There are dozens of power connectors hanging from pillars along the vehicle deck – that are used to plug refrigerated cargo trailers into – that would be perfect to connect our Juice Booster EVSE into – but we don’t dare!



After a smooth four hour crossing – we pull alongside the Irish Ferries Ulysses ferry at Holyhead in Wales. The day is uncharacteristically dry and bright – what a great start to our road-trip!



Traffic is light and we don’t take too long to get off Anglesea island – a usual traffic jam spot for us – as we push east wards towards our next ferry.

We stop off at IONITY Stafford for the first charge of the trip. The station is quiet – which is fortunate as two of the six charging pedestals are showing an “out of order” message on their screen.



While we are confident in the charger fix our car recently had – it was still a reassuring sight to see a flawless charge with the car taking in a healthy 258 kW of energy.



We pull in to M6 services area for some food.



Soon after crossing the M6 Toll bridge the weather turns wet – and soon torrential – which while forecast – was still a challenge to drive through as darkness fell.

We had to queue for a charge at IONITY Cambridge – not helped by again another charging pedestal out of order. Queuing at these stations is always a bit fraught as there is no where in the layout to obviously do so.

Water and electricity mix okay, right?



After a further two hours drive through the rain storm – we arrive at the port of Harwich and join the queue – behind a classic Saab Turbo spewing all sorts of pollution into our lungs – for our overnight ferry to the Hook of Holland near Rotterdam.

This ferry is also delayed by approximately two hours.



The Stena team work hard to make up for lost time and about an hour later than scheduled we board the ferry.



Find our cabin.



And just as importantly find a drink to celebrate a successful and safe start to our road-trip.

The days charging stats


Today we did 585 km over 11:03 hours, with an average speed of 61 km/h, consuming 24.4 kWh/100km.

Day 2: Hook of Holland (Netherlands) -> Ålborg (Denmark)

We arrive into Hook of Holland close to on-time – after a surprisingly smooth crossing considering the heavy rain storms of yesterday.



Exiting the ferry into an overcast Dutch morning.



With our PCM programmed with our epic 1000km route. Today is the key to getting us close to Norway efficiently.



It’s a Sunday morning so the four-lane motorways are quiet.



We stop off for our first of five planned charges today at IONITY Tolnegen Zuid – a rather sorry looking IONITY station with only two pedestals. It soon becomes apparent that both are broken – so we have to drive approximately 5km up and down the motorway to be able to cross over to the other side and try the station there.

Thankfully, both of those are working. But that is a lot of broken IONITY’s we’ve seen so far on this trip.



We are never totally dependent on IONITY here in the Netherlands as there are countless FastNed stations – with their distinctive covers – every few kilometres along our route.



After a few hours we reach the German border.



And start to avail of the progress you can make on the autobahn. We’ve driven our Turbo S a few times now on these roads – but it never ceases to empress us – how capable this car is. Flipped into Sport mode (there is no need for Sport Plus) it accelerates faster than any car around us.

Equally impressive is the fact we’re on winter tyres – that soon will be biting into ice and snow to keep us safe – but is now capable of handling the sustained 200+ km/h speeds of the autobahn.



However, while the roads are quiet – persistent rain starts to fall – increasing our braking distance and forcing us to reduce speeds to a safer range of 150 km/h - 180 km/h. This is still quiet quick and allows us to make rapid progress on this leg as we push north towards Denmark.



With the higher consumption at these speeds – around 38 kWh/100km – we need to stop and charge a little bit more frequently.



Taking the time to grab some food on a bridge overlooking the speeding cars below.



Returning back to a nearly full car and a German Taycan buddy charging next to us – it’s interesting to see the different DC charging sides of the EU Irish and EU German spec cars side-by-side.



As we continue north – missing the compass on the dash of our recent loaner car – we start to pick up signs for Flensburg – on the German/Danish border.



Thankfully, the tunnels around Hamburg are open and flowing freely.



Taking one last stop in Germany before we cross over.



We reach the Danish border and are a little surprised to see border control and checkpoints – seeing as we are remaining in the Schengen area. We actually take a wrong lane and end up driving into an inspection area voluntarily. Where of course our Irish registration plate captures attention.

But a friendly police officer quips they don't see Irish plates too frequently – but as we're all EU citizens – we're waved through immediately and quicker then if we had to queue at the actual checkpoint!



Picking up our first charge in Denmark – and needing to look up the Danish Kroner to Euro rates to figure out the currency. IONITY is charging the typical €0.33 we see everywhere. A number of SMART car EV’s turn up that look like they might be undergoing manufacturer testing.



We stop off at a Circle K for a quick rest as we see more and more snow accumulations on the side of the road.



Our hotel tonight claims to have destination charging on their website – but we never rely on it – so pick up a final charge to give us enough energy for tomorrow if needed.



Which is just as well – as the hotel reception informs us that it does not have EV charging.

As we are at an airport hotel – we’re sure there probably is AC charging somewhere here – but we’ve enough energy on-board – so don’t bother to search for it.

We made it!



Parking beside an Elm tree for the night - with the glow of Ålborg airport in the background.



And grabbing an expensive Carlsberg before heading for some sleep.


The days charging stats


Today we did 997 km over 10:53 hours, with an average speed of 92 km/h, consuming 28.2 kWh/100km.