How I buy tires for my used electric car

The next episode of your favorite reality show is here! This year, winter has started for us with heavy snowfall and everyone can evaluate the choice of tires for their car. In the case of electric cars, this is another interesting and debated topic, because tire manufacturers have prepared special tires for them. In this article, we will understand why electric cars should use these specialized tires, and I will also tell you what winter tires I chose myself and why I will no longer buy tires from the Reifen-direkt online store.

When my car had already returned to Latvia, I noticed that it had summer tires on it and since the first winters were approaching, I had to start solving the issue of tires. When I started digging into this, I was surprised to find out that the electric version of the Hyundai Ioniq has bigger wheels. I previously drove the same generation Ioniq hybrid that used 195/65 R15 tires, but now I have to look for slightly larger 205/55 R16 tires for the electric version of the Ioniq. Bad, because I was already used to small and relatively cheap tires!

No M+S all-season tires!

Next, it was necessary to understand what type of tires to look for in general. Everything was simple here, because I am a principled person and I use tires specially designed for the particular season for my cars. Summer tires in summer and winter tires in winter. I believe that M+S type all-season tires, which are supposed to be suitable for all seasons, are not really suitable for anything. I’m glad that CSDD also thinks the same and from October 1, 2024, you will no longer be able to use M+S tires (without the snowflake logo). Tires, however, are too important and a component directly affecting traffic safety to be treated lightly. OK, we are looking for normal winter tires!

So how is it really there – can we install ordinary tires on an electric car, or should we look for tires specially made for electric cars? I haven’t chosen some cheesy BMW i3 and my car has completely normal tire size. OK, I’m going to look at the websites and configurators of the tire manufacturers themselves. Some tire manufacturers specially emphasize that this or that tire model is suitable for use in electric cars (even if they do not always explain what it is in general), and a large number also explicitly offer tires with the XL index, or reinforced tires.

Why are electric cars specialized tires?

So what makes electric cars different that they might need specialized tires. We can single out several reasons:

• Weight: Although in my specific case the electric version of the Hyundai Ioniq is not significantly heavier than the hybrid, it is a fact that most electric cars (at the expense of the batteries) are heavy cars. Plus, to improve aerodynamics, electric cars try to use narrower tires, so the tires of such cars have to withstand greater loads.
• Efficiency: Since electric cars in their current form are very important to get as much mileage as possible from a charge, manufacturers are trying to improve this aspect in various ways. In the case of tires, this means achieving the lowest possible rolling resistance. This, as it turns out, can be of great importance for mileage – with special tires designed for electric cars, we will be able to drive up to more than ten kilometers from each charge.
• Twist: Even if the torque is similar for both my cars, the way this torque is applied is significantly different in the case of an electric car. Namely, the electric motor allows you to move the car in an instant and it also creates an additional load on the tire.
• the noise: In the case of “normal” cars, even if we think the car is quiet, most of the noise comes from the engine and transmission. In the case of an electric car, the electric motor is much quieter, so in the car cabin we will better hear various environmental noises, such as the sound of tires. That’s why electric car tires are built to be much quieter.

Clearly, electric car tires should not go with a curve. Especially if I’ve bought a car that can’t go far even in ideal conditions. Why should I reduce its mileage further?

The internet is full of various tire tests, charts and comparisons. But they all seem like a pretty big mess to me. In one test, one tire wins, in another, another, and in a third, a third tire. Which is normal, because there is no uniform testing methodology among these tests. The only takeaway from these tests for me was that over time some repeating tire patterns crystallized. Typical from known brands and also the tire models themselves were heard somewhere before. Respectively, in this regard, I chose not to experiment with some incomprehensible tires of an unknown brand.

After looking at many such tops, I made my own personal top from a few tire models and in the end the price/availability battle won: Bridgestone Blizzak LM 005 tire. I’m not saying it’s the best winter tire in the world and I’d probably go for something else next time. I rather got the feeling that in certain price categories those tires could be quite similar to each other.

My experience with Reifen-direkt was not entirely good

I had heard about the Reifen-direkt tire online store for years, but somehow I had never shopped there. I usually buy tires at service centers where I change them or from “my own ends” who can offer good prices. This was the first time I ordered tires online. And at the same time the last one.

The Reifen-direkt page itself is quite crooked and crooked, but I was willing to put up with it as an experiment. I chose the tires, paid with a card, and on October 17 the waiting period began. I had also applied for a tire change in time and with a good margin at my favorite R1 service. Reifen-direct sent information that the shipment has been sent and I could follow how it travels from Romania to Latvia. A day or two before the tires were to be changed, they were finally delivered by the courier to my apartment door… but there was little catch. I had ordered four tires but only two were delivered. so what?

Reifen-direkt could not be contacted. Its website looks like it is designed only for sales and not for customer support. That’s why I started making a fuss on the side of the DPD courier service. Did the whole package really come to me? Word by word and I found out that this shipment is divided into two parts and the other half is traveling from Germany (if I’m not mistaken) and will arrive in a few more days. DPD also gave me a second tracking code and I was able to postpone the tire change and wait for the delivery of the second pair of tires. They arrived on October 30 or even a little later. To be fair, I now found an indication in Reifen-direkt’s e-mails that the shipment is divided into several parts, but there was a tracking code only for the first (Romanian) part. Accordingly, in general, such an approach is not acceptable and I will not shop in this store again. From now on I will buy tires somewhere locally where I don’t have to wait for weeks.

When I discussed my choice to use Reifen-direkt on Twitter, people warned that the shop can send old tires. I also saw an indication when buying these tires that for an additional small fee you can get guaranteed fresh tires. When they brought my tires, I concluded that they were manufactured about 1 year ago. So, neither new nor completely old. Will join!

I had heard stories from other drivers of electric Ioniqs about the fact that tire pressure sensors tend to freeze in winter, as if the moisture in the tire somehow fails to freeze on them. It hasn’t happened to me yet, so I haven’t tested one suggestion – fill the tires with nitrogen. This is a normal practice in motorsport, but due to the relatively low price of the service, you could try it for your street car as well. If I fix this problem with the tire pressure sensors during the winter, I will try to experiment with nitrous.

Driving an electric car in winter is very unusual

I have spent these few snowy and cold days with this car and the first impressions are so interesting. First of all, this car drives quite differently than the Ioniq hybrid that I am so used to. Although the cars are very similar, the driving experience is significantly different. I don’t go crazy with the hybrid and it rains in impassable places, but I don’t remember ever being worried about the car’s capabilities. With the electric Ioniq, it’s just the opposite for me – it feels like I’m going to get stuck everywhere. Both in an unswept snow patch near the house and in a pile of shoveled snow on the side of the road where I have to pull over. Perhaps it is related to the electric car’s instantaneous spin – the wheels spin out so fast that the car’s pre-locking system is basically flashing all the time, because there is a fight with this lock-out. As a result, the car seems to drive and does not drive. The other thing is silence. When a “normal” car goes uphill, there is both noise and vibrations and you get the feeling that we are about to leave… or get stuck even deeper. There is no noise in an electric car and this only increases the ignorance of what is happening with the wheels. But it could be that all this is just delusions and mind games, because I haven’t really seen anything yet. You just have to keep driving and get used to it.

The second thing that winter has brought is a significant increase in car energy consumption. If in autumn my average consumption in the city was up to around 20kWh/100km and outside the city I managed to see a consumption of less than 13kWh/100km, now with our slight minuses and snow the consumption can reach and even exceed the 30kWh/100km mark. And for a car with such a small battery, this means that the mileage in winter can be ridiculously low – around 100 km. Even with the entire heat pump, the car consumes a lot of energy for heating and maintaining heat (the feet also freeze below 21 degrees). I have seen in the panel that heating can take place with a power of 4-5 kW, which is not little. The good news is that I have finally installed a charger in my multi-storey car park and now I can preheat the car and it really reduces the consumption on the next trip. I will tell you about installing the charger in the next articles of this exciting series!

Oh, one more thing. Before the winter, other drivers of electric cars warned that in very slippery conditions you have to be careful with the regeneration function of the car. Namely, it can make the car skid. This can really happen and in practice the feeling is really uncool. During the dry part of the year, you are used to using the accelerator as a brake function – take your foot off and the car begins to slow down noticeably. Now, in winter, if you remove your foot, the car should brake, but on the slippery road surface, the system blocks the wheels for a moment and you get the feeling that the car literally leans forward. Nothing pleasant! But reducing the regeneration level fixes this problem and nothing slides anymore.

Conclusions

So what are the conclusions from all this? With tires everything is simple and not so simple at the same time. It is clear that I will not buy tires on the Internet again, because the hassle is not worth it. Even though specific tire models probably don’t matter much, it probably does matter if the particular tire is designed specifically for electric cars. Here, however, even ordinary and scarce electric cars have both a momentary twist and a desire for efficiency and silence. I will choose specialized tires for the next summer and winter.

Drive an electric car? What is your experience with tires? Where and what tires did you buy and how do they behave on the road? How does your car behave on the road in such climatic conditions?

Also read other articles in this experiment series

Since this experiment will take place over a longer period of time and I plan to regularly inform about my experience with this car, I invite you to visit my Twitter account @krizdabzas well as read the rest of the articles in this experiment series:

I would also like to say a big thank you to the supporters of this experiment. Used car dealer BRC helped to choose and bring an experimental car to Latvia, and the insurer If helped us get it electric car CASKObut Enefit installed electric car charging equipment.