New tires killed my range (20-30% decrease)

[Knightshade]

If you don't plan to drive below 35-40 degrees, or ever in snow, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires.

If you DO plan to ever drive in those situations, but not in heavy snow, Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 (which is what I'm running)

If you plan to drive in heavy snow I'd recommend running dedicated snow/winter tires in the winter, and the PS 4s summer tires the rest of the year.... though the Michelin Cross Climate+ (and I think a new version is about to come out) might work for you.

 

[KenC]

Strangely, my all-season snow tires have been just as efficient as the OEMs. Vredestein Quatrac5. My lifetime efficiency is 244Wh/mi. This Summer, with the Quatracs I averaged 221Wh/mile. According to ABRP, my calibrated 65mph efficiency is 235Wh/mile. For a LR-AWD, I'm pretty surprised that it did that well. Wouldn't recommend for a Florida owner, but anyone who's looking for snow-rated tires to use year round, the Quatracs are very good.

 

[MJP.P3D-]

If you don't plan to drive below 35-40 degrees, or ever in snow, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires.

If you DO plan to ever drive in those situations, but not in heavy snow, Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 (which is what I'm running)

If you plan to drive in heavy snow I'd recommend running dedicated snow/winter tires in the winter, and the PS 4s summer tires the rest of the year.... though the Michelin Cross Climate+ (and I think a new version is about to come out) might work for you.

100% agree with this recommendation: Concise. Accurate. Simple.

Given the relatively little snow we’ve been getting here the last few years, I’ve contemplated going the All Season 4 route however I’m sure that will trigger a record year of accumulation if my past luck is any indication. So, I’ll likely stick with the PS4s for summer (on the car now but due for a rest) and the X-Ice-Xi3s that will likely be installed this weekend.

 

[Bubbatech]

That's true- doing that insures you get the degraded performance of whatever compromise on range, cost, etc the OEM selected instead of using your own personal preferences to shift the weight of that compromise nearer your own desires.

That is my preference. I think the stock tires are fine and I am happy with the trade offs as the car was delivered. I’ve not seen any reliable way to assess different tires. Forums like this one are entertaining, but most of the time what you find here is folklore, not reliable facts. There are some excellent exceptions, but I haven’t seen tire info that would guide an expensive purchase like that.

 

[Sophias_dad]

That is my preference. I think the stock tires are fine and I am happy with the trade offs as the car was delivered. I’ve not seen any reliable way to assess different tires. Forums like this one are entertaining, but most of the time what you find here is folklore, not reliable facts. There are some excellent exceptions, but I haven’t seen tire info that would guide an expensive purchase like that.

www.tirerack.com has both actual scientific reviews as well as personal opinion reviews.

 

[Bubbatech]

www.tirerack.com has both actual scientific reviews as well as personal opinion reviews.

Cool. I’ll check it out.

 

[Knightshade]

That is my preference. I think the stock tires are fine and I am happy with the trade offs as the car was delivered. I’ve not seen any reliable way to assess different tires. Forums like this one are entertaining, but most of the time what you find here is folklore, not reliable facts. There are some excellent exceptions, but I haven’t seen tire info that would guide an expensive purchase like that.

There's mountains of objective testing done across almost every tire out there. Tirerack as mentioned is a great source, probably the best- but tons of others.

Good performance tires stopping 20-30 feet shorter than the stock MXM4s from 60 mph (and even greater difference at higher speed) isn't folklore- it's measured fact (and basic physics)

 

[OCR1]

The Tirerack reviews might be helpful for general information about the driving performance of the tire, but Tesla owners want to know how their range will be affected by different tire alternatives. Tirerack does not have much if any info on this, and the information on this forum is mostly anecdotal and somewhat limited in volume.

We know that the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tire is a great performing tire. But trying to assess what the real impact on range would be is difficult. There are a few owners who have posted some data here, but very few, and they are spread out across the country in different climates, with different driving styles, different combinations of freeway/city driving, etc. So trying to come up with a fairly precise estimate on range degradation on these tires has been difficult. The OP in this thread certainly has not increased my confidence in the Pilot Sport All Season tire.

 

[Knightshade]

The OP in this thread certainly has not increased my confidence in the Pilot Sport All Season tire.

Why?

If you read the rest of the thread, he appears to have eventually ended up getting normal mileage, and after finishing his trip ended up making a number of charging stops roughly appropriate for the distance involved.


That seems to reinforce all the data from others that you're talking about a single-digit percentage range hit for much better performing/safer tires.... (which thusfar has been exactly my own results with exactly those same tires, albeit on an LR car instead of an SR)

 

[OCR1]

Why?

If you read the rest of the thread, he appears to have eventually ended up getting normal mileage, and after finishing his trip ended up making a number of charging stops roughly appropriate for the distance involved.

Where did you see that? In his last post he said “Had to charge 7 times, and solemnly swear to my wife that the Tesla will only be used for in-state trips going forward, but we made it”. Beyond that we don’t know what Wh/mi he is seeing now compared to the OEM tires nor what overall range he averaged.

 

[JBT66]

I think there are tires out there that actually give you MORE range than the MXM4's. Some of the forum members have posted increases with different tires along with other pluses like less noise, etc...

I’ve not seen this. Not a single one. Please help me find these magical tires.

 

[Catbiscuits]

What in the world is wrong with 7 stops in 1500 miles. I don’t even see how I’d make fewer stops in an ICE vehicle. Doesn’t his wife need to use the restroom. Mine will never make it past 200 without a bathroom break.

 

[OCR1]

What in the world is wrong with 7 stops in 1500 miles. I don’t even see how I’d make fewer stops in an ICE vehicle. Doesn’t his wife need to use the restroom. Mine will never make it past 200 without a bathroom break.

If it was 1,500 miles one way that would be great, but extremely unlikely in a base SR model. Another poster asked for clarification on whether the trip is 1,500 miles on way or round trip but OP never answered so we really don’t know what’s going on here.

 

[EnrgyNDpndnce]

What in the world is wrong with 7 stops in 1500 miles. I don’t even see how I’d make fewer stops in an ICE vehicle. Doesn’t his wife need to use the restroom. Mine will never make it past 200 without a bathroom break.

This. The rule on my family road trips is that we will stop every 2 to 2.5 hours like clockwork so SOMEONE can use the bathroom. I’ve learned to live with it and have adjusted to take advantage by doing some walking / stretching during these stops. And of course now I say “the next Supercharger is 30 miles away, you can hold it that long!”

 

[EnrgyNDpndnce]

Had to charge 7 times, and solemnly swear to my wife that the Tesla will only be used for in-state trips going forward, but we made it

OP, glad you guys made it. Assuming you tracked it, would you please post the wh/mile info for your trip along with total miles covered? Many thanks.

 

[lateulade]

It was 7 charges for 750 miles, unfortunately (TeslaFi data below). Consumption averaged .260wh/mi over the entire trip — some of that was rain, some of it was me driving 70 rather than 65, some of it was mountains (I live in South Florida, so I’m not used to it) and some of it was the tires, I’m sure. I’ll definitely be upgrading to SR+ when funds allow. The trip went exactly as nav/ABRP recommended, and at least two charging stops were added because I was just a few % short to skip and get to the next one. The 158 mile leg was split into two 90 mile legs (I had to go several miles in the wrong direction and double back). I love my car, but if we replace my wife’s 2011 Prius (which is too old/unreliable to risk taking 800 miles from home) with a Y as planned, we’ll definitely be getting a LR for family trips — adding 3 hours of charging time to a 12 hour drive was a pretty miserable experience with my wife and two kids in tow.

 

[EnrgyNDpndnce]

@lateulade thats great info, thanks for sharing. As one who travels often for business, I think 261 Wh/mile is fairly normal for interstate travel at 65-70 including some rain and some mountainous driving. Probably would have been a bit better with the OEM tires but not dramatically so. By comparison, I averaged 251 Wh/mile across 80k (lots of highway) miles on two sets of OEM tires. Most of those miles were with me alone, adding the family and luggage increases energy consumption.

Totally agree the LR would be best for these types of trips. I’m guessing my Model 3 LR would require 4 (maybe 5) charging stops to make the same trip. And each stop would likely be a bit quicker than yours since the LR charges a bit faster than the SR. Maybe an hour and a half total charging time as opposed to the two and a half hours you experienced. Hard to say for sure without knowing the exact route.

At any rate, really glad you made the trip safely and successfully. Best of luck on your future electric motoring endeavors.

 

[OCR1]

My lifetime average on a LR RWD with OEM 18” tires is 242 (on about 12,000 miles), so 261 for interstate driving with sports tires seems very reasonable. As others have stated, the SR is not the ideal car for long distance trips, and perhaps it’s best to stick with the OEM tires since range is more of a factor for an SR than an LR.

 

[hgmichna]

I just did a 646 mile trip across the Alps in my SR+. I used A Better Route Planner (ABRP) for planning with good success, but apart from one out-of-order Supercharger the Tesla navigation yielded the same result with slightly longer charging times.

Austria has a speed limit of 100 km/h, in Italy it is 130 km/h. I obeyed these limits.

I was interested in how much time a Model 3 LR would have saved me, so I estimated that too. I assumed that on a drive like this I would insert a one-hour lunch break half-way, regardless of what type of car I would use, so that cannot be held against the electric car.

The result, very roughly estimated, is that in addition to the lunch break, which would of course be used for charging at the same time, the SR+ needs about one extra hour for charging, while an LR would only use roughly a half extra hour with fewer charging stops. Total driving time under good weather and traffic conditions is about 9:30 h, so the SR+ needs 11:30 h overall, while the LR would make it in 11 hours.

It took me by surprise that the difference is so little, and it confirmed my choice of the SR+. However, there can be situations in which the LR would make more of a difference, particularly in areas with few charging stations and for trips that can be done without recharging in the LR, but that would require a charging stop in the SR+. Skipping the lunch break and eating while driving instead would also tilt the comparison further in favor of the LR. Of course it generally depends on what your time is worth or how much time you are willing to spare.

In the event I needed over two hours more because of very unfavorable weather (lots of rain), headwind, dense traffic with low speed, a blocked highway on my way back, and people being slow in the charging breaks.

 

[vickh]

It was 7 charges for 750 miles, unfortunately (TeslaFi data below). Consumption averaged .260wh/mi over the entire trip — some of that was rain, some of it was me driving 70 rather than 65, some of it was mountains (I live in South Florida, so I’m not used to it) and some of it was the tires, I’m sure. I’ll definitely be upgrading to SR+ when funds allow.. View attachment 601963

with all the $ changes, what's the SR+ upgrade lately?