EV tyres - The best tyres for your electric vehicle

Electric vehicles are known for their reduced running and servicing costs. That, combined with the environmental argument, is the reason they exist after all.

But while it’s true that fuel (power) costs can be lower, servicing the mechanically simpler EV is cheaper, and brake wear is reduced over conventional cars, there’s one thing an EV is harder on than normal cars. And that’s tyres.

The tyre industry has been forced to come up with specific electric vehicle tyres in an attempt to address the main critical areas of concern: The extra mass of an EV, the way the often brutal torque is applied by an EV, the need to maintain and maximise efficiency and the lack of mechanical noise an EV contributes (making tyre silence more important than ever).

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The biggest fundamental difference between an EV tyre and a conventional radial is that the EV item will be stiffer everywhere.

That includes the sidewall and even the individual tread blocks. In terms of vertical spring force (sidewall stiffness) the EV tyre will be about 20 per cent stiffer than a normal tyre.

The self-aligning torque (the tread stiffness) will also be about 20 per cent higher and the entire tyre casing will be a similar amount stiffer in an EV tyre vs regular tyres.

That’s largely to do with managing the mass of an EV which is typically a quarter to a third as much again as a conventional car of the same size.

But managing the way the EV produces lots of torque from a standstill also means the actual rubber compound is also likely to be about 20 per cent harder than a normal tyre.

The biggest fundamental difference between an EV tyre and a conventional radial is that the EV item will be stiffer everywhere. (Image: Tim Nicholson)

That reduces wear, but also reduces outright grip, particularly in the wet. Some EV tyre manufacturers hotly dispute this, but it’s a fact; EV tyres don’t grip as well as conventional tyres. They do, however, generally wear more slowly than a conventional design on the same car.

The other downside is that the extra stiffness of the EV tyre also means its heavier, contributing to extra unsprung mass and more flywheel effect at each wheel.

That extra stiffness and overall design also means the EV tyre has lower rolling resistance, and this is a huge contributing factor to how far a particular EV will travel between charges.

An EV with conventional tyres will simply not travel as far on each kWh of power due to the extra rolling resistance.

These changes have not just been accepted by the industry, they’ve also given birth to a whole new category of tyre; the XL HD family.

Michelin EV tyres are highly regarded as research has been put in to develop viable replacement and original-equipment EV tyres.

When it comes to noise management, the idea is to produce a tyre that doesn’t create lots of road noise, as that’s all the EV driver would hear (given the rest of the car is so quiet). To that end, tyre manufacturers have gone to great lengths.

The first step in keeping noise down has been to add a foam strip inside the tyre, running along the inside of the tread.  That acts as a damper to reduce noise. The other move has been to look at the actual tread blocks and patterns.

Many EV tyres now have a different tread-block frequency to normal tyres as well as different edge shapes including uneven block patterns to break up resonance.

The other move has been to specify higher inflation pressures and, where a conventional car might be happy on 32 to 34psi, the EV tyre requires more like 40psi with 45psi a not-uncommon inflation recommendation.

The best EV tyres for a particular car, then, are likely to be the ones it was delivered on. That’s because all that Nth-degree engineering is specific to that application and the wrong tyre on the wrong EV could create noise, wear and even handling problems.

In many cases the prices of comparable EV and conventional tyres are very close to each other.

Branding, as always with tyres, is important, too. Michelin EV tyres and Goodyear EV tyres are highly regarded (as are many mainstream brands) as it’s these established tyre companies that have put in the research to develop viable replacement and original-equipment EV tyres.

But as with any automotive trend that’s catching on fast, there’s no shortage of EV tyres Australia-wide, so even a damaged tyre in regional areas can now be addressed.

So, with all that new tech on board, how much do EV tyres cost? Well, the news is actually good. While there might be a small – say $50 per tyre – premium to pay for an EV specific tyre, in many cases the prices of comparable EV and conventional tyres are very close to each other.

Which means, there’s no real reason not to use a tyre designed specifically for an EV, and, therefore, no reason to trade off the EV’s best characteristics.