Day 7: Glasgow (Scotland) → Liverpool (England)
Today is a transit day and not a very exciting one! First we had to get a COVID test to be allowed back into Ireland. We parked in the spacious Q Park at St Enoch which was 100 meters from the test centre.
Saw my first Ice Grey Taycan parked right outside the test centre. Configurator doesn't do that colour any justice.
We got our results quickly and thankfully both my co-driver and I were clear and got required travel certificate (required by Ireland in addition to full vaccination proof) very promptly.
As we were going back the same route as we arrived to Scotland – we decided we might as well have the same charging strategy. There is a lot of merit in using charging locations that were successful previously. So we headed out of Glasgow and onto the M6 for the long trip down south.
Stopping at IONITY Gretna Green for a short battery top-up before continuing along the M6. These four chargers were busy as always and a lovely Crayon/Chalk Taycan just nabbed the last free spot as we were pulling in! As I mentioned earlier in the trip – queuing at these stations is very disciplined – with a dedicated waiting area (rare) – and we were soon charging our own Taycan for a quick 13 minute charge to take in 21.5 kWh
After charging – we grabbed some food at the Welcome Break nearby. When we came out and unlocked the car - the PCM had stopped the active navigation. It had also decided to stop connecting to the cell service – though there was plenty of strong coverage. As our next charging stop wasn't on the "offline" POIs stored in the car and it had wiped the history – it was impossible to add the location as a waypoint when re-creating our route again.
This is a very, very frustrating issue with our car. It has happened way too often on this trip – car loses connectivity – and it makes road tripping much harder – plotting complicated routes and using the planner to gauge battery levels at each stop. Porsche needs to fix this and as our car heads for both its one year anniversary and first 30,000 km service – it has made me more resolved to insist on a fix and raise serious complaints about this issue.
It should be noted when this happens – I also lose Bluetooth, Wifi and CarPlay connectivity – making alternative navigation options outside of paper maps impossible.
This issue – including the randomness of it – really frustrates me.
As we are getting the ferry back to Ireland tomorrow – the plan was to have enough power for tomorrow to not require any charging stops – we also stopped in on MFG Crow Orchard – for a healthy charge closer to Liverpool.
We plugged in for 34 mins and in that time we pulled 64 kWh at a solid rate of 110 - 140 kWH from these 400V chargers. This is where the optional 150 kW DC charger (voltage converter) is worth it. Though 400V chargers are more common in Ireland than United Kingdom.
We now had enough battery power to get to our hotel in Liverpool and to the ferry in Holyhead the next day.
Pulling into our hotel for the night – Crowne Plaza Liverpool City Centre – we noticed an available Polar 50kW charger in the hotel car park.
Our road trip philosophy is to always grab charge – even if not required – if its easy and convenient – so we topped off the battery while we checked-in.
The days charging stats:
| Location | Start SOC % | End SOC % | kWh added | Cost | Duration | Ambient Temp | Battery Temp | Charger Type | Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gretna Green | 48% | 80% | 21.57 kWh | GBP £6.47 | 13 mins | 10C | 32C | DC 350 kW | IONITY |
| MFG Crow Orchard | 27% | 93% | 64 kWh | GBP £25.00 | 34 mins | 11.5C | 38C | DC 150 kW | MFG |
| Crowne Plaza Liverpool | 84% | 100% | 13.5 kWh | GBP £4.42 | 40 mins | 10C | 34C | DC 50 kW | POLAR |
Today we did 358 km over 6:10 hours, with an average speed of 59 km/h, consuming 25.5 kWh/100km.
