Tyres (esp. for a plugin hybrid)

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Lizard1977

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#312547 26-Apr-2024 11:48

I will soon need to replace the rear tyres on my Outlander PHEV. I've been delving into the interesting world of hybrid cars (and especially plugins) and discovering the little ways they are different or need extra consideration. For instance, do you know they have to be plugged in? Shock, horror! /s

Returning to seriousness for a moment, I discovered that the type of tyres can have an impact (to a greater or lesser degree) on the EV battery range. Doing everything I can to increase/improve my battery range, I'm looking for tyres that will aid in my endeavours.

I've spoken to a few different tyre places in Palmy and have been offered a very diverse set of suggestions (and prices). I'm hoping the community here might be able to provide some cut-through on what seems like a very crowded market of tyre options.

Pirelli Powergy - $405ea (but if I buy a set of four, I will get a trade in of $75ea on the still decent front tyres. Not sure if this brings the unit price down to $330, or if it's just a $150 trade in price). But a different tyre place said the Powergy - while being a decent tyre - aren't an energy efficient (low rolling resistance) tyre.
Yokohama GO58 - $285ea. Recommended by the guy who advised that the Powergy's weren't a good option for low rolling resistance.
Michelin Primacy 4 - $438ea. A very good tyre (and seems to be highly recommended by others), but is expensive especially compared to the Yokohama's, which the guy said would offer comparable performance at the price.
Bridgestone Ecopia - $395ea. Recommended by a different tyre place who said they were comparable to the Michelin's as a low rolling resistance tyre.

Thoughts on these suggestions, or any alternatives I should be looking at? For reference, the tyre size is 225/55/18, and my main use case is short distance city driving (<20kms/day) with a couple of long-distance trips to Auckland, Whanganui, Wellington etc) each year. No off-roading (lol) or gravel driving. The main things I'm looking for are improvements to battery range (as much as possible), good safety (obviously) and durability. I know full well that there are always tradeoffs in these situations, so looking for a good balance of these things.

Scott3

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#3223062 26-Apr-2024 12:27

Yeah, it is very much a trade off. Cost vs rolling resistance vs grip vs durability.

I have Michelin Primacy 4 on my leaf. Note that they are not a low rolling resistance tyre, they are a comfort focused performance touring tyre (Michelin have their energy line, and also make an EV targeted e-primacy tyre, which are focused at less rolling resistance, but have less tread depth so likely won't last as long). In the EV space they are regarded as being fairly energy hungry. ~8,000km in and I would buy them again (of course I got them substantially cheaper than your price which will be a combination of the smaller size and being able to avail costco pricing in auckland). Good steering feel, good acoustic profile, good comfort, and the car no longer slide's all over the place in the wet (the rubber on the tyres I replaced must have hardened or something, because the car would enter into slides on wet patches in the mall carpark at 15km/h....). My range took quite a hit, but I also went up one size on aspect ratio, so I can't quantify this.

Family members changed from OEM Nexan to Michelin Primacy 4 on their Kona. Massively more grip (especially wet grip), but a noticeable hit to their range (of course with that car having an ~450km real world range this is hardly a dealbreaker).

The Ecopia range is regarded as being one of the lowest rolling resistance tires around. Have had them on multiple cars. Steering feel & acoustic's are fine, but i felt the grip and wear life were lacking. The set I had on my RX400h established this cracking (I assume UV cracking), even though the pairs were only 2 & 4 years after their date of manufacture respectively. (didn't notice this issue on the BMW i3). Should note that there are sub models in the Ecopia range that are quite different from each other. Oddly the Ecopia on my RX400h was about 4% less in diameter than the tyre of the same nominal size I replaced it with.

Can't comment on the other tyres. Sometimes you can fine usefull infomation from european tyre tests, and also from user feedback on places like productreview. Some tires seem hated and other loved for some reason.

As a general note, be aware that changing from worn to new tires (once the mold release has worn off) generally results in more grip, more noise & higher fuel consumption.

Batman

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#3223820 28-Apr-2024 21:38

I bought a Leaf with new Ecopias, and grip was the last thing you'd be asking of the tyre. spinning everywhere, dry, wet, doesn't matter. if you don't drive like a maniac, it'll be fine i think.

Goosey

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#3223847 29-Apr-2024 06:40

Had no problems with ecopia.

had them on a couple Mazda cx5’s in the past four years.

no unusual wear
no slipping

I do at least 500-700km driving per week in a mixture of city, urban, rural, highway.

As is with any tyre, if you keep them inflated to the correct pressures (light and heavy loads), ensure they are balanced and suspension aligned at least once a year then there shouldn’t be any issues.

dodgy shock absorbers cause most issues…