Rain!
This morning we got up a 06:00 again to head to Narvik, a 500km trip from Mosjøen. We stayed the night in a hotel near the SuperCharger. As soon as I got up I went to the SuperCharger to fully charge the battery before breakfast.
When I walked out the hotel it was raining! What!? It also had snowed that night, but that later turned into rain. It was 1C when I got into the car.
The roads were all wet and sluggish, bad driving conditions.
At 07:15 we left the hotel and headed for the Storjord SuperCharger, a trip of 200km. The navigation told us it should take 3 hours, well, it took us 5.
Rain and frozen roads turn into ice. Ice is bad for driving on, so we had to take it slow and stop very often.
we are driving non-studded tires because we also pass countries where studded tires are not allowed and required. I know this is not ideal, but we had to. This morning I really wanted them.
After 2 hours the conditions got better, the rain turned into snow and the roads became less icy. Better conditions for my Nokian Hakka R2 tires.
Finally, at 12:20 we arrived at the Storjord SuperCharger!
New firmware with trip prediction
Last night I got a notification on my iPhone that a new firmware was available for my car. I configured it to update the car over night and this morning I got firmware version 6.1
This firmware brings a new feature where it calculates based on the speed limits, height difference and some other variables how much battery you will have left when you arrive at your destination. It basically tells you if you are going to make it.
We left with our battery charged to 90% and it told us that we would arrive with 29%. We arrived with 30%!
The next two legs of our trip today it also worked flawlessly, it was spot on in predicting.
The Arctic Circle
After charging at Storjord we headed for the Innhavet SuperCharger. Again a 200km trip where we would pass the Arctic Circle!
We started descending and at 650m above sea level we passed the Arctic Circle in windy, snowy and cold conditions, but we made it! Fully electric we drove 3200km from the Netherlands using just the SuperCharger network to the Arctic Circle!
Time for a selfie together with my dad:
And obviously a picture of my Model S parked on the Arctic Circle:
Stuck at the Arctic…
But something else happened there as well! Due to the windy and snow conditions we saw a snow dune to late and couldn’t brake in time. The front of the car got stuck on it.
Nothing really bad. We were prepared, we had two shovels with us, so we dug ourselves out in about 20 minutes.
So I put my dad to work:
After 20 minutes we were on our way again without any permanent damage.
The road to Narvik
After charging at Innhavet we headed for Narvik because there is a special Tesla owner there.
Tesla already blogged about Jens Kratholm. He owns 6 Roadsters and one Model S. Who says electric cars don’t work in the cold?
The road from Innhavet to Narvik was horrible again. Rain, snow, sluggish stuff on the road and a delayed ferry!
After taking the ferry we continued towards Narvik and we got stuck again! I politely pulled over for a Norwegian behind me, but since it was dark and raining I couldn’t see the parking spot properly. It was deep snow which had turned into a slush puppy due to all the rain. I started digging again….
At 19:00 we finally arrived in Narvik and had some coffee at Jens and talked about Tesla 🙂
Jens recommend us the Scandic Hotel in Narvik since it also has charging options. While we didn’t need the charge in Narvik to reach the last SuperCharger in Setermoen it would never hurt to do so.
The Scandic Hotel has two free 22kW (3x32A) chargers available where my Model S is now happily charging from.
Tromsø
Tomorrow we are heading for Setermoen first, the most Northen SuperCharger on the planet! Afterwards we are driving to Tromsø where we will stay for a couple of days and hopefully see the Aurora / Northern Lights.
From Tromsø we will take a 2-day coastal ferry to Trondheim from where we will drive to Oslo and take a ferry back to Denmark. All again using just SuperChargers!