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.

Edit: We ended up documenting this trip daily!

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.

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.