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

[tigerbalm]

Winter Tyres

Our Pirelli P Zero Winter R20 XL Elect NF0 tyres are holding up great. But this year with the intense snowfalls and ice on the road – we can see where a dedicated Nordic tyre would be more sure footed. But considering that these tyres also got us to this region safely via the German autobahn – they are still very confidence inspiring.

We have not yet had to think of using our snow chains.

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[tigerbalm]

Day 6: Mo i Rana (Norway) –> Narvik (Norway)

After breakfast we walk out to our snow covered car.



And spend a few minutes clearing it from all the body panels. The curvy nature of the Taycan offers a lot of opportunities for snow to accumulate.



Driving through Mo I Rana with snow pilled heavily on the sides of the streets.

With such low temperatures even after the sun is up – the road remain icy.

We reach the barrier to the Saltfjellet and are happy that it is open after spending many a day monitoring this very crossing over the past few weeks – as the road authorities alternatively closed or introduced column driving here.

And starting our climb up to the approximately 630 meter summit.

Until we reach the arctic circle.



Where it is a cold -10C outside – with our HV heater keeping our cabin a comfortable and cosy +22C with ease.

With such high snow levels and drifts here – we launch a drone from our car to explore closer.



Capturing footage and images of the closed centre.



Before starting to head back down the other side.

We stop off at various parking spots along the way – trying to use the drone again – but it has a thin layer of ice built up on it – and is not happy. Time to thaw it out.



We pull in at Storjord and take on a little energy at the Tesla superchargers here – as we don’t have enough to reach our next planned IONITY stop – mostly due to the additional energy heating our cabin takes in these conditions.

Thankfully the station is almost un-used and we nab "the perfect" place to plug the short cable into the "wrong" passenger side of our Irish spec Taycan.

With the increased number of IONITY stations this far north compared to last year – this is currently our only planned use of Tesla on this trip.

We grab some lunch while we wait for the short thirteen minute charge to complete.



Moving our car mid-meal when it reaches our target temperature. As EV’s built up little to no heat on its bodywork – if snow isn’t pushed out of the way by airflow – or manually cleared – it will stay put on the body and not melt.



After eating we continue north – leaving the arctic circle well behind us.

Today see plenty of Elk on the roads – but it is still too bright for them to trigger our night-vision camera warning system.

Stopping off for a quick top-up at a new IONITY station at Ulvsvåg.



We arrive at the E6 ferry terminal.



Where the public road traffic cameras pick us up queuing behind the only other car here.

After about twenty minutes we board – with only a total of four cars on this crossing. As these ferries are considered part of the E6 road – payment is handled the same way as the rest of the tolls – by registering our license plate with the authorities.

The calm crossing takes 25 minutes.



After disembarking the ferry – It is about an hour and a half to Narvik – where we plug in for a free 22 kW AC destination charge under our hotel.

The days charging stats

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Tesla Storjord	54%	81%	34	€15.72	13 mins	-6C	40	DC 150 kW	Tesla
IONITY Ulvsvaag	39%	71%	27.61	€4.73	7 mins	-2C	36	DC 350 kW	IONITY
Scandic Narvik	19%	100%	67.8	€0.00	3 hours 31 mins	-7C	24	AC 22 kW	Hotel

Today we did 417 km over 8:03 hours, with an average speed of 50 km/h, consuming 27.3 kWh/100km.

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 7: Narvik (Norway) –> Lofoten (Norway)

We went out to our fully charged car – but if we were not able to get a destination charge at the hotel - there is an attached parking garage that has an entire Tesla supercharger station inside it.

Even though we have reached the most northern point on this trip – we do have to drive north for a few kilometres to pick up the E10 to Lofoten

Where the roads are in general well cleared – making driving easy.

With some long tunnels that give you a little "break" from watching out for ice.

It isn’t long until we reach the islands with its dramatic scenery.

Despite being a mostly clear day – that can – and does – change in an instant.

After a few hours we reach our accommodation for the next three nights – Solsiden Brygge.

There are four 11 kW chargers here. However, they charge a steep rate of €0.71c/kWh and have a €0.10c/minute charge for blocking the charger after you’ve finished.

Both prices totally understandable – and we support charging for destination charging if it makes it viable for properties.

However, with the fine – and the timing of this charge – we’d have to go out at 02:00am to unplug and that isn’t too pleasant in this conditions.



Therefore, we decided to drive a few kilometres to the nearest fast chargers that were showing on our PCM navigation – and use our Porsche Charging Service card to get a quick top-up.

There was a wide range of charging speeds available at this station – so we chose the middle one (180 kW) due to our battery not being particularly pre-heated and felt it would be the best balance for us.

The charger immediately delivered its stated 180 kW and did so until we hit 70% state-of-charge. We think we made the right choice!

Before driving back to our property, parking up for the night and heading to the attached restaurant where we had some scary looking but tasty Angler Fish.

The days charging stats

Location	Start SOC %	End SOC %	kWh added	Cost	Duration	Ambient Temp	Battery Temp	Charger Type	Network
Eviny Leknes	23%	83%	63.38	€15.72	26 mins	-1C	20	DC 180 kW	Porsche Charging Service

Today we did 320 km over 6:11 hours, with an average speed of 53 km/h, consuming 23.3 kWh/100km.

 

[tigerbalm]

Day 8: Lofoten (Norway)

We wake up at our trip half-way point to this outside our cabin window.



Today is a rest day – we only hop in the car to get some food supplies.



Among the mountains of pilled up snow.



It always surprised me at how happy the Taycan battery management system (BMS) is to leave the battery near freezing point if it can and outside air supports cooling it.



It is very unlikely we'll see the northern lights this weekend - due to cloudy snow filled skies. Tomorrow we'll go and explore the southern end of the islands.

 

[Scandinavian]

Norway always amazes me with its scenery and distances.
I think your trip from Narvik out on Lofoten equals in distance from Dublin to Killarney! But on the map you shared it looks such a small distance.
Great photos and reports as always, Thank you for sharing! Hope you get to experience the Northern lights this time though.

 

[tigerbalm]

I think your trip from Narvik out on Lofoten equals in distance from Dublin to Killarney! But on the map you shared it looks such a small distance.

Yes! It is very, very easy to under-estimate distances here. What is also remarkable for such a long country is also how narrow it is! For much of this trip, we've been within 100 km – often much less – of Sweden.

IONITY is building out its northern Swedish network nicely too. There is so much to explore there and I think this will open it up to us very soon.

It is amazing what a few additional stations can do – even the two northern Norway IONITY stations we've used on this trip – made a big difference to our charging planning this year. Pity the new station at Bødo isn't ready yet.

 

[Scandinavian]

IONITY is building out its northern Swedish network nicely too. There is so much to explore there and I think this will open it up to us very soon.

Yes Ionity have expanded really nicely there. The other network that I was quite impressed with on our latest trip to Norway, was Evind. I saw that you charged there with the Porsche Card, which seems new. I could not get that to work during Christmas! There are quite a lot of Eviny stations on Looften!

Maybe you can see some whales there as well? Not sure if this is the season for them, but they are magnificent to see!

 

[tigerbalm]

Pizza time ?

 

[cityhpper]

Looking more and more at home, this Turbo S of yours…

 

[tigerbalm]

Looking more and more at home, this Turbo S of yours…

I am also becoming more tardy and less interested in clearing the snow off our car. It has quickly gone from a novelty to a chore!

Spent the drive home using the night-vision camera to "judge" which houses had bad insulation from their heat signature.

Genuinely though, it is amazing to compare an ICE car's heat signature with the many EV's we pass – where only the tyres are emitting any infra-red.

 

[tigerbalm]

Another Taycan topping up their battery outside our cabin tonight. Interestingly they are on 21" wheels. I didn't think there are too many winter tyres at that size – must take a look tomorrow what they are using.

 

[Mats]

You are bringing up nice memories from a photo tour I did a few years back. Although went there by train from southern Sweden to Narvik and then by rented car touring Lofoten for a good week. I guess you already have Reine in your plans. A very photogenic place. ....and don't forget to taste the skrei which is in season now. A special kind of cod coming to the Norwegian coast in January/February from cold waters of northern Atlantic.

 

[B61]

Great read and great pictures as always. And nice to see that you visited Lillesand Ionity, which is close to me and where I go if home charging is not enough.

If a price at Ionity would be 0.07€/kwh, I’d never charge at home (0.20€)
What’s your cost at home?

 

[or1]

If a price at Ionity would be 0.07€/kwh, I’d never charge at home (0.20€)
What’s your cost at home?

It varies by the hour, depending on electricity consumption and production in our area as well as in Denmark an Germany it seems. From zero (rarely) to around 0,06 (usual) to 0,15 (rarely) Euro/kWh. Last winter was worse.

Edit (added): I have never seen Ionity as low as 0,07 for my use in Norway. Have used only home charging lately, but last year Ionity for me was 0,14 and above with the Porsche charging card.

 

[B61]

Capturing footage and images of the closed centre.

How long batteries holds dron in the air?
Is this DJI mini pro 4?

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