Introduction
Six months after our winter trip to Norway we're heading back to explore the southern part of the country in more detail. This will be our first time in Norway without snow or transversing the arctic circle. Our aim for this trip is much more relaxing, exploring, walking/hiking and enjoying long journeys in our electric vehicle.
With all the recent talk of depreciation, brittle batteries and dramatic improvements to latest version of the Taycan – we hope it will be a timely reminder for us on just how amazing the first-generation Taycan still is for trips like this.
Over the next two weeks we'll take six international ferries linking the countries of Northern Europe together, sleep at sea for three nights, drive legally at speeds well over 230 km/h, charge the car from the endless renewable energy provided by hydro and – most importantly – experience the wonderful Norwegian fjords.
The weather in Northern Europe has been very unsettled this summer – so hopefully it won't be too wet. Regardless, there is a saying in both Ireland and Norway that roughly translates into English as: "there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad preparation". We've done our best to be prepared for whatever this trip throws up.
We would also like to thank the many Norwegians on this forum who have made suggestions on places to stay and routes to take.
We have completed our planning and leave Friday evening for a night ferry to the United Kingdom.
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 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 continue to build out their network and we'll be using a few that were not available last trip.
Mer (via RFID fob): This is a popular Norwegian charging service owned by the Norwegian renewable energy generator Statkraft – who are also building massive amounts of wind farms here in Ireland.
Eviny (via Porsche Charging Service RFID card). A relatively new charging network that has built out some impressive stations in remote areas.
With these as backup networks should they be required:
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): Increasing number of supercharging stations open to all cars.
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. This year we've ordered toll device AutoPASS to avail of better discounts in the many toll roads in Norway.
We picked Flyt as our provider but there are many to choose from. Flyt were happy to post out the toll device to Ireland free-of-charge and only charge subscription for the months that it has been active.
Tyres
Our car has the 21-inch RS Spyder Design summer wheel-and-tyre set fitted with Pirelli P Zero R21 PZ4performance tyres. These are the same tyres that came fitted from the factory and have approximately 20,000 km on them with 5mm of thread evenly across the width of each. With 1.6 mm thread being the legal minimum across Europe and 3 mm being the recommended minimum from Porsche, we've plenty left for this road-trip. They came from the factory with just over 7mm of thread on them.
We are very pleased with that wear rate – which has undoubtedly been assisted by changing to our winter wheel and tyre set between the months of November and late February.
Front axle: 265/35 R21 101Y XL tyres
Rear axle: 305/40 R21 104Y XL tyres
With two people in our four seater car, luggage for two 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: 2.7 bar
HV Battery Health
We're interested to see how a demanding road-trip like this impacts battery health. While we appreciate the limitations to the accuracy of using an OBD-based mobile app – we will at least still be able to compare like-with-like. Especially as we'll be doing close to a months worth of driving each day on the trip.
Join us
The PCM has been keeping an eye on the weather.
