Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Some EV owners in the Florida are reporting having to buy tires after just 5,000 to 7,000 miles of driving.
Makes me wonder, what EV has to do with excessive wear of tires?? Is that due to vehicles weight?
Looks like EV owners need tires with stronger constructions and more robust rubber compounds.
What is your experience?
So why the fast wear? It’s a combination of lots of power that can be put down instantly and wild curb weights. But it also comes down to individual driving style.
What do tire companies have to say about all of this? They’re aware of the problem and are working on EV-specific solutions.
I've never had to replace tires on my EVs, even after 3 years of daily driving my first one, and 12,000 miles in the year I've had my second one. The tires still look new.
I'd be willing to bet most of the "reports" of EVs eating tires are on performance models that are used hard a lot, just like performance gas cars can eat through tires rapidly. there are no "wild curb weights" with the exception of a very small number of luxury models (the stupid Hummer EV weighs 9000 lbs, but there have only been about a thousand sold, so it's negligible in the big picture). The Tesla Model 3 weighs within a hundred lbs of the BMW 3 series, and cars like my Bolt only weigh 3600lbs, which is less than a Camry or CR-V.
Michelin reports EVs wear out tires up to 20% faster than conventional cars, not only because EVs are heavier but because they create so much more torque. The same could be said when comparing one ICE with large body & powerful engine to another smaller, more anemic ICE...A driver can compensate for that by driving style.
Most of us don't run our tires down to nothing before replacing them, so one could also compensate by delaying replacement a little longer.
So much for impact on an individual car owner...The problem is-- microscopic rubber particles are being emitted by accelerated tire wear, so more rubber becomes airborne per mile driven by the total population of EVs. That rubber can pollute the air and water, possibly causing more environmental problems.
There are many good reasons to drive an EV, but saving the environment is NOT one of them.
Michelin reports EVs wear out tires up to 20% faster than conventional cars, not only because EVs are heavier but because they create so much more torque. The same could be said when comparing one ICE with large body & powerful engine to another smaller, more anemic ICE...A driver can compensate for that by driving style.
Most of us don't run our tires down to nothing before replacing them, so one could also compensate by delaying replacement a little longer.
So much for impact on an individual car owner...The problem is-- microscopic rubber particles are being emitted by accelerated tire wear, so more rubber becomes airborne per mile driven by the total population of EVs. That rubber can pollute the air and water, possibly causing more environmental problems.
There are many good reasons to drive an EV, but saving the environment is NOT one of them.
Yea, EVs can create a lot, lot more torque which some people really enjoy. I think what automakers should do is by default put the vehicles in their "chill" or easier driving mode equivalent or whatever they decide to call it. Since it's a software-defined motor controller, this means that you can change the pedal to torque mapping really easily and they should be launching by default with more easy going profiles.
The EVs being heavier part isn't much of a factor until you get into the large pickup trucks and SUVs. I think the better solution to this is to heavily tax large pickup trucks and SUVs regardless of powertrain type. Something like an annual tax based on mileage, curb weight, and GVWR with a nonlinear increase would greatly help.
I think the other thing to consider aside from the torque is that EVs often come with rather skinny tires so that the amount of surface area contact is lower which lowers rolling resistance loss and a slimmer profile to lower aerodynamic drag loss. This also means that the weight of the vehicle is distributed over a smaller area of the tire which should also lead to greater wear. I do know that some people do not like the often default slim tires and swap them out and they generally last longer so I think this may be a very primary culprit.
The saving the environment part is really only in comparison to ICE vehicles. There's still a large environmental footprint from EVs, but it's only because ICE vehicles are incredibly terrible in that regard that they make EVs look good. If you care a lot, then I think the right steps are to move towards walking, biking, scooters/moped, and/or mass transit though this is certainly quite difficult to do in much of the US.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 01-26-2024 at 09:21 AM..
Some EV owners in the Florida are reporting having to buy tires after just 5,000 to 7,000 miles of driving.
Makes me wonder, what EV has to do with excessive wear of tires?? Is that due to vehicles weight?
Looks like EV owners need tires with stronger constructions and more robust rubber compounds.
What is your experience?
So why the fast wear? It’s a combination of lots of power that can be put down instantly and wild curb weights. But it also comes down to individual driving style.
What do tire companies have to say about all of this? They’re aware of the problem and are working on EV-specific solutions.
Ev's tend to be 10%-15% heavier than comparable ICE vehicles and they have tremendous power capable of burning the tires away (so did my Hellcat). The original tires on my Model Y were good for over 50K miles, I was shocked at how well they held up.
I finally replaced those all season tires with some high performance tires as I don't need all season in Phoenix, I'll be even more shocked if these tires last as long as the first ones did.
My initial concern about tire wear when I bought my Tesla after hearing war stories of EV tire wear have been totally alleviated.
I drive a model 3 performance and am going on 46,000 miles on my first set of tires. I replaced the 20” rims for 18”s and these tires soon after I bought it.
I’ll likely replace the tires soon but 46,000+ miles from a set of tires is pretty close to normal.
Some EV owners in the Florida are reporting having to buy tires after just 5,000 to 7,000 miles of driving.
Makes me wonder, what EV has to do with excessive wear of tires?? Is that due to vehicles weight?
Looks like EV owners need tires with stronger constructions and more robust rubber compounds.
What is your experience?
So why the fast wear? It’s a combination of lots of power that can be put down instantly and wild curb weights. But it also comes down to individual driving style.
What do tire companies have to say about all of this? They’re aware of the problem and are working on EV-specific solutions.
I have not experienced that at all - I have over 150K miles on EVs and normally get about 35-40K miles on a set of tires. Also the idea of EVs weight being an issue is very false - a BMW series 3 is within about 100 pounds of a Tesla Model 3 and a Tesla Model S weights less than an equivalent MB S or BMW 7 series.
Yea, EVs can create a lot, lot more torque which some people really enjoy. I think what automakers should do is by default put the vehicles in their "chill" or easier driving mode equivalent or whatever they decide to call it. Since it's a software-defined motor controller, this means that you can change the pedal to torque mapping really easily and they should be launching by default with more easy going profiles.
The EVs being heavier part isn't much of a factor until you get into the large pickup trucks and SUVs. I think the better solution to this is to heavily tax large pickup trucks and SUVs regardless of powertrain type. Something like an annual tax based on mileage, curb weight, and GVWR with a nonlinear increase would greatly help.
I think the other thing to consider aside from the torque is that EVs often come with rather skinny tires so that the amount of surface area contact is lower which lowers rolling resistance loss and a slimmer profile to lower aerodynamic drag loss. This also means that the weight of the vehicle is distributed over a smaller area of the tire which should also lead to greater wear. I do know that some people do not like the often default slim tires and swap them out and they generally last longer so I think this may be a very primary culprit.
The saving the environment part is really only in comparison to ICE vehicles. There's still a large environmental footprint from EVs, but it's only because ICE vehicles are incredibly terrible in that regard that they make EVs look good. If you care a lot, then I think the right steps are to move towards walking, biking, scooters/moped, and/or mass transit though this is certainly quite difficult to do in much of the US.
The thing is that an EV may have a lot of torque but the the way the system works, it is nearly impossible to spin the tires on an EV which would increase wear - they do not need to apply breaks for traction control like on an ICE, they just reduce torque instantaneously to any wheel if it is loosing traction.
Also the average EV is NOT heavier - the listed 2024 BMW 3 Series/Curb weight is 3,582 to 4,138 lbs depending on model and the 2024 Tesla Model 3 is 3582 for the single motor standard range and 4065 for the dual motor long range performance version - so the exact same weight for the base versions of both and the Tesla is actually 73 pounds less than the equivalent performance BMW. The Tesla's do not come with skinny tires - they come with performance tires. How would you get 0-60 of 2 seconds on skinny tires, especially if they were loosing traction?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
