Nordkapp Road Trip with Audi e-tron – Part IV

This is part IV of my road trip to the Nordkapp. You can find the part I here.

After successfully exploring the Lofoten our next plan was to drive the Kystriksveien.

Kystriksveien

The Kystrikveien Fv17 is a 650 km long coastal road running from Bodø to Steinkjer. It is known as one of the most beautiful roads in the world. If you want to drive the full distance you have to take 6 ferries.

Before starting with the Kystriksveien we did some research on the internet.

Navigate the Jungle, a website focusing on EV road trips, had planned to drive the Kystriksveien in 2018 with an EV, but after some investigation, they came to the following conclusion:

Unfortunately, it is not possible to drive the Kystriksveien, Norway’s coastal driving route with the current models of the electric car.

This sounded like an interesting challenge for us and our reaction was: let’s prove that an Audi e-tron in 2020 can do this.

To be really at 100% SOC when we started the Kystriksveien near Bodø we charged twice before in Fauske and Løding (both 50 kW DC accepting the Audi card).

The Kystriksveien startet with some lovely fjords and occasional fishing boats.

At some point, we couldn’t resist entering an interesting looking offroad side-track through a dense forest. But knowing that this could significantly reduce the remaining range we quickly returned to the main road.

Along the Kystriksveien there are only a few chargers and most of them are slow AC chargers. Therefore it’s best to use any possible charging option. Our first stop was in Ørnes. We charged there at the AC Type 2 charger from 67% to 72% in 1 hour while we explored the small village. Since there was not much to do there we decided to continue despite being only at 72%.

The next section was the most critical since chargers are very rare. Navigate the Jungle wrote in their report:

It is simply not feasible to undertake this section of the coastal road in an electric car.

After a very short ferry ride from Forøy to Ågskardet, we spent the night in Jektvik where we charged overnight with 1 kW on a single-phase wall plug. The calculated charging time until 100% was 44 hours. It was very clear that even overnight we would raise the SOC only a little bit. Hopefully, sufficient to reach the next charger. After 12 hours we managed to get from 44% to 61%.

For the next section, we decided to better activate the e-tron range mode (which reduces the air-condition and heating of the car to gain some extra range).

At 1 p.m. next day we took the 1 hour ferry from Jektvik to Kilbogham.

Halfway through this ferry ride we crossed again the Arctic Circle, marked by a symbol on the shore.

After another ferry ride (Nesna – Levang, 25 minutes) and crossing the spectacular Helgelandsbridge we finally reached Sandnessjøen.

Coming from Bodø Sandnessjøen is the first location on the Kystriktveien where you can find a fast CCS DC charger. The most difficult section of the Kystriksveien (for an EV) was accomplished.

One and a half hours and a delicious sushi later we were back to 100% (both the e-tron and its passengers :-).

The following section of the Kystriksveien leads through beautiful landscapes, which we enjoyed in the golden evening light of a sunny day.

Before reaching our cabin for the night we had to take two more ferries (Tjøtta – Forvik, 60 minutes and Andalsvåg – Horn, 20 minutes).

We were right after sunset on the ferry and the sky was absolutely spectacular.

We stayed the night at Norsk Havbrukssenter in Brønnøysund in a beautiful modern cabin, built in the style of the traditional Norwegian fishermen’s rorbuer.

It was probably our favorite accommodation on the whole trip and we would have loved to spend another night there. But sadly they were fully booked for the next night.

We started the next day with a short hike to the Torghatten mountain known for its characteristic hole through its center. You can walk there from one side of the mountain to the other side through a natural tunnel. The track is rather easy, only the last part requires a bit of rock scrambling.