Electric Car Tires

[Nuugle42]

Being extremely lightweight, unlike most “normal” EVs on the road now, with huge battery packs, the Aptera uses normal car tires, not special EV tires.

[len]

I think this was the video?https://youtu.be/8pM9o2Ifcro

I am about 1 1/2 years away from shopping on our ( 1st ) EV, so always interested to hear. The torque will wear them fast….like our mid weight ICE sport coupe vehicle did!.

Actually this is a topic for our next EV chapter meeting. Asking for shared stories from the mix of EV brands in the chapter. We have EV compacts to EV trucks and EV conversions, so it should be interesting to hear experiences. Hopefully about Fix a flat and plug repairs experience too!

Proper air pressure is always important. ( I have a little of primitive road travel( four miles each trip) , were low pressure is actually better but I just maintain the brands suggested air pressure, which is for paved roads. Enjoying your ride!

[ray-holan]

Thanks for your post, Len. It will be very interesting to hear the combined experience of your EV group. My BMW i3 uses Bridgestone tires specifically engineered for EV challenges of minimal tire noise, handling, and wear resistance. The 2,000 lb. weight of the Aptera means its tires do not have to contend with a 4,000 lb.+ weight. However, the typical tire noise of a non-EV tire might be an annoyance. Time will tell.

[Greek]

Ray, unfortunately for us i3 owners, there is only 1 company that makes summer and all season tires for our vehicle. Living in desert climate, no need for winter tires, at least there are 2 choices of tire manufacturers for winter Bridgestone & Hakkapeliitta. Bridgestone has nearly doubled their price on i3 tires from several years ago.

[ray-holan]

Yeah. I checked out the price of a replacement tire from Bridgestone and when I saw the price I prayed mightily I could find one from another manufacturer — no joy. The old supply and demand principle.

[Mike-Mars]

There is usually enough clearance to allow a slightly larger tyre to fit. For example, going from 175/55R20 to 175/60R20, or whatever, if that is more available. Obviously important to be consistent left/right, and keep any change in the circumference the same front/rear.

On mine (an entirely different manufacturer), I was having trouble with potholes & speedbumps, so I went from 185/50R16 to 175/65R15 (obviously needed to change the wheels too). That added a lot of extra rubber, and it solved the pothole issue. It also meant that I had a wider range of tyres to pick from.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by  Michael Marsden.

[ray-holan]

Good point, Mike. The kicker might be the effect on range — perhaps not much, perhaps a significant hit.

[Mike-Mars]

In an ICE car, if you increase the circumference, it will increase the actual range very slightly (i.e., acts as a very modest increase in gear). Not sure of the effect on the Aptera, we’d need to know the efficiency-map of the Elaphe motors. Note that the vehicle’s display would not know about the circumference increase unless coded in the ECU, so would underestimate slightly. On my car, I needed to make a 2.7% adjustment.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by  Michael Marsden.

[david-marlow]

My experience with the OE low rolling resistance tires on my 2011 Volt was not good. While they did help with the range. The compromises made to achieve this resulted in many tire problems, including poor traction, blowouts, punctures and shorter than expected tire life, due to starting out with about 1/2 the normal new tire tread thickness. By far being the most dissapointing part of the car. I replaced them with better tires, while loosing about 10% in range, all of the other problems were gone, with much better handling and twice the tire life.