norway – Page 3

To Norway and back using just Tesla SuperChargers

I had never seen the Aurora Borealis and with the growing SuperCharger network of Tesla Motors I’ve driven my Tesla Model S from the Netherlands to the North of Norway using just SuperChargers.

A 5412km roadtrip going through Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway using just the Tesla Motors SuperCharger network.

An amazing trip through snow, ice, rain and -22 Celcius. Driven 100% electric and without a single problem.

I’ve written multiple blogposts about my trip:

Energy Consumption

Everybody always talks about how much more EVs start consuming in the cold. To see if this was true I kept a detailed triplog of every leg of the journey.

The sheet is on Google Docs and shows that over 5412km I used 1197kWh of energy. That comes down to 221Wh/km or 22kWh/100km.

That is 10% more then the ‘Typical Range’ (Tesla terminology) the car tells me.

From Tromsø to Trondheim

Power failure

On Thursday we charged my Model S again at Jekta Shoppingcenter since we were taking the Hurtigruten ferry that night to Trondheim and I wanted the battery to be full.

The battery was charged around 14:30, so we headed towards the polar museum in downtown Tromsø.

After driving just 500 meters the city got dark. All lights went out, power failure!

Lucky me that we just finished charging. It took over 2 hours before the power came back. So no Polar Museum since that was closed. We sat in the car for 2 hours since there was nothing to do and it was very cold and windy outside.

Hurtigruten

Since this is also a vacation for us we figured it was nice to take the Hurtigruten ferry from Tromsø to Trondheim. A 2-day and 3 nights trip which takes you through the Fjords here in Norway.

After driving on to the ship the Hurtigruten employee asked for the key of the car. He explained that they need to move the cars as people come on and go off.

I gave him the key and just as we were about to go up, he asked: How does this car work?

He had never driven a Model S before. I gave him a brief walkthrough in 2 minutes, explaining that it’s simply a automatic. D, R and P, that’s all. I didn’t look and him parking the car. Thought it was best to just trust the guy.

After sailing for a day I checked on my phone (WiFi on board) to see how my car was doing. The battery was still at 312km, but it said the car was parked on the dock in Tromsø!

Did they drive the car off again to make some room and forgot to drive it on again? For some peace of mind I wanted to know if it was on the ship. The nice lady at the reception asked the car deck if they could check if a white Tesla was onboard. It was.

Trondheim

Early Sunday morning we arrived in Trondheim at 06:30. Our next destination was Lillehammer, but to get there we had to use the Dombås SuperCharger. 200km from Trondheim. Although the battery was still full enough (290km) I wanted to have some reserve.

The SuperCharger near Trondheim (Klett) was still about a week away from being finished, so that was no option. I called the Tesla Service Center in Trondheim in advance since I heard that they had 22kW charging available. A quick phone call told me that they had 4 22kW chargers available outside the gate. They were accessible 24/7.

After the charge it was time to head to the Dombås SuperCharger!

The most Northern SuperCharger on the planet

Setermoen

After staying the night in Narvik at the Scandic hotel we left for the most Northern SuperCharger on the planet. Setermoen to be exact.

In Narvik it was +2 Celcius and some wet snow was coming down. We figured we were in for a drive on slushy roads again. That was true for the first 30km, but suddenly we started climbing and it started snowing!

I also took a small video of the weather. It was fine to drive in, but as you can see, the roads are covered in snow and visibility sometimes wasn’t that good. Just use your common sense when driving in those conditions.

But finally, after 3346km using just Tesla SuperChargers we arrived in Setermoen!

All the way from the Netherlands we’ve driven to the most Northern SuperCharger! A hard thing to do? No, not at all. Just make sure you adapt to the Swedish and Norwegian conditions. Be prepared, that’s all.

Tromsø

Setermoen was however not our final destination! After charging in Setermoen for a while we continued up North towards Tromsø.

In Tromsø we met with a future Model S owner, Thilo Bubek. When he saw I was making this trip he contacted me so we could meet up. We did and obviously we talked a lot, I mean a lot, about Tesla.

We also came to Tromsø to watch the Aurora Borealis. It happens that Thilo has photography as a hobby and he knew the good places to watch the Aurora.

Aurora at Sommarøy

It took an hour to drive from Tromsø to Sommarøy. We had stood in the -4C with heavy winds for hours and hours, but we saw a beautiful Aurora display! Clear skies with half moon.

At 01:00 we figured it was time to go home, the display was over.

On the way back we made a quick picture of my Model S under the moonlight and a bit of Aurora:

The credits for these pictures go to Thilo Bubek. He’s a lot better in taking pictures then I am!

To Trondheim

Tonight we are taking the Hutigruten coastal ferry from Tromsø to Trondheim. From there we’ll continue our journey back home, using just the SuperChargers again!