AutoWeek reader Thomas van Kampen is not averse to some adventure. He drove his Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus to northern Norway in search of the Northern Lights. Mission accomplished, and that without a single night in a hotel.
Dutch people who travel to the far north of Scandinavia in winter often do so under the banner of an organized ride and with a 4×4, often heavily stickered. Not so Thomas van Kampen. The self-proclaimed AutoWeek fan (thanks for that!) simply packed up his gear and his ‘lease box’, a gray 2019 Tesla Model 3 in the simplest Standard Range Plus trim. A copy with the smallest battery and rear-wheel drive, so. Completely standard, moreover, because apart from a set of winter tires the car was in no way prepared for a harsh, icy ride.
It became the ultimate test for the Model 3, which was actually on continuously throughout the week. Thomas not only drove his Tesla, he also slept in it! “I haven’t seen a hotel all week,” he emphasizes when asked. Van Kampen, a tax specialist in daily life, spent about 14 to 15 hours a day driving and loading, before sealing the windows with some insulating foam panels and lying on the self-made bed in the back.
The Model 3 actually also served as a camper. “I got the idea from YouTuber Björn Nyland,” explains Thomas. That EV guru, as we can safely call him, lives in Norway and indeed also regularly camps in his EV. In theory, the electric car is very suitable for this, because no engine needs to be running to generate heat. In the case of a Tesla, there is even a special ‘camp mode’ for this purpose. On a cold night – we are talking about temperatures of 15 to 25 degrees below zero – 20 percent of the battery will just go through, but that is fairly easy to solve.
Heater at 24
Thomas usually just charged at Tesla’s Superchargers, which can still be found in the northernmost part of the continent. It does require charging to 90 or 95 percent more often in order to reach the next pile, but that is not a bad idea at these temperatures. “After 200 kilometers it was usually empty again,” reports the adventurer. What also does not help is that the heating was usually set at 23 or even 24 degrees. “The glass roof lets in a lot of cold, you notice that,” the statement reads.
And, did the northern lights succeed? Secure! Thomas got to see the magical phenomenon several times and on a very extensive scale, and could enjoy it all night while lying under that same glass roof.
Thomas ends his beautiful, icy cold route through Norway in Sørkjosen, 650 kilometers above the Arctic Circle. Not going any further given the time available, but with this Thomas has seen almost all of Norway. In addition to the northern lights, he also encounters the most beautiful landscapes, reindeer and even moose. For the way back Thomas chooses the route via (a piece of) Finland and then Sweden, so varied. After another four days of driving, the balance can be drawn: 6,269 km, 7 days, 6 countries and more than 60 different Supercharger locations.
Thomas took good reading with him: AutoWeek 51/52 with our own electric adventure to Scandinavia!
Issues
Thomas looks back on the trip with great pleasure, but it did not go completely smoothly. The car shuts down twice while the screen still shows a significant residual percentage of power. In Germany it just manages to get the charger under its own power, but in Sweden the Tesla with 5 percent in the battery has to be brought to the Supercharger by truck. Strange, and certainly not in line with our Tesla experiences. “When they returned home to the Netherlands, the Service Center looked at it, but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary,” says Thomas. “I was told to simply empty it again, let it stand for a while and then refill it again and it has indeed been going well since then, but of course it remains crazy.”
This problem also ensured that Thomas did not want to drop below 30 percent on the way back, which naturally increased the number of charging stops. At the same time, there are also words of praise. Thomas’ Model 3, with its rear-wheel drive, relatively small battery and relatively inefficient 19-inch wheels, is about the least suitable Tesla for this adventure, yet it plowed over meters of snow with astonishing ease. “With the gas loose, the rear sometimes blocked because of regeneration and sometimes he wanted to break out, but it never became unsafe,” says the man, who can now safely be called an experience expert.
An extensive travel report with many more photos find you here. We thank Thomas very kindly for sharing his fantastic story!
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl