Three hours from Oslo, on the country’s west coast facing Scotland, lies the small town of Fagernes. About two thousand residents, a lake that cradles it, mountains for skiing and hiking, two gas stations, 14 public charging points and four driving schools. One of them is Sonja Øie Petersen’s. Its peculiarity? Gives lessons with a Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo.
And the students love it. Some even come from the capital solo to be able to drive the Porsche.
After learning to drive with a Porsche, any other car seems inferior
In the co‑pilot seat of the electric Porsche, Sonja Øie Petersen, 51, a calm person with a philosophy of driving that goes well beyond simply parking without brushing the curb. “I don’t just want to teach my students how to drive, but above all to instill responsibility,” she explains. In the driving school’s showroom, 87 pairs of socks hang, because in 2025 there were 87 road fatalities in Norway.
After almost two decades as a teacher, in 2022 she opened her own driving school, the ‘Øie Trafikkskole’. It didn’t go badly at first, although the real success came when the Taycan appeared.
Sonja Øie Petersen beside her working tool, a Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo.
“I’ve dreamed for a long time of owning a Porsche”, says the teacher, “and shortly before turning 50 I discovered this Taycan in Volcano Grey on an online platform. It was exactly the car I had waited for for so long.”
She found it on a used-car platform during a conference in Trondheim: Volcano Grey, 27,400 kilometers, exactly what she had been imagining for years. On the way back to Fagernes she detoured through Oslo just to see the car. And she bought it. It arrived in Fagernes with it without telling her husband. “It was love at first sight.”
In a practice track south of Fagernes, Sonja Petersen teaches her students to safely dodge obstacles that appear unexpectedly. Something that in Spain sounds like science fiction.
Petersen decided not to put the driving school’s name on the bodywork, as she had done with her previous black BMW 1 Series car, in order not to spoil the car’s lines, she explains.
In its place, she ordered customized plates with the word Øie, her second surname, which means “eye” in Norwegian. The publicity proved unnecessary: in a place where everyone knows everyone, the news that you can learn to drive in a Porsche spread on its own. And it reached Oslo. Now, students come from all over the country.
And how do students feel about learning with a Porsche? In a country where getting a driver’s license is, besides being a necessity and even more outside Oslo, very expensive, doing it with a Porsche adds a plus that many students appreciate.
Margerita Sotomayor beside Sonja Petersen during a driving class in the Taycan. “After twenty hours in a sports car like this, any other car seems a little disappointing.”
Obtaining a driving license in Norway is a lengthy and costly process, typically well in excess of €3,000. It’s one of the most expensive in Europe, for several reasons. The process includes 20 mandatory classes, but also additional courses, such as first aid, night driving, driving on ice and snow, as well as a module on safe driving.
The theoretical exam costs around €300, consists of 45 questions and you need to get at least 85% correct to pass. As for the practical lessons, each one-on-one with an instructor typically costs between 500 and 800 Norwegian crowns, roughly €45 to €70. The students Grindaker-Ask and Margerita Sotomayor vividly remember the first time they sat behind the wheel. Margerita highlights the security it transmits even with ice under the wheels, something common in Fagernes for several months each year.
Frida admits that nerves hit right away, though they soon faded. What did not fade was a certain nostalgia: after twenty hours in a car like that, any other car seems a little disappointing.
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