Electric vehicle tire replacement
 

When I replaced 2 of the bridge stone ecopia tires with new ones next thing i know my miles per kwh was in the garbage.
Those first 2 days of driving was kind of scary.
I was running a very comfortable 4.5 miles per kwh, just replacing 2 tires dropped that to 3.7 miles per kwh.
Had I replaced all 4 tires it could have dropped to around 3 miles per kwh.
Had I replaced all 4 tires it would have been likely that:
If I bought the tires in the next town over I would not have made it home if I didn't stop and charge at the rental house or one of my friends.
If I didn't leave for work the next day with anything but a full charge I might not have made it back.
If I tried to go to the next town over and back with out charging, I wouldn't have made it.


Now 400 miles later I am back at 4.4 miles per kwh.
Running 38psi on new tires as opposed to 42psi on warn out ones is alright.

So look out for that tire break in if you have an electric vehicle you use to where you require most of its range.

Possible counter measure, buy 1 or 2 at a time like I did. The tire dealership will hate you if you buy 1 at a time and replace all 4 like that. But if you can just get it out of the way and buy at least 2 at a time.

Other countermeasure; drive slower, or inflate to even higher tire pressure. Slower is almost always the most effective solution to range problems in an EV.

Driving 10 to 20 mph below the speed limit on the state highway would be very dangerous.
The leaf shows around 8 miles per kwh around 35mph.

In my experience, both on a Leaf and an e-Golf, the Bridgestone Ecopia tires are just about the lowest rolling resistance tires available today. The caveat is that I have driven the OEM version, only, and I think the retail version (Ecopia Plus?) has deeper tread, I think.

I typically inflate them to 42-44PSI, and they roll and roll and roll.

The Michelin tires on out Bolt EV are also really really low rolling resistance, and they have better grip, particularly in the winter.

The Leaf is not very good aerodynamically, and the Bolt EV is in theory worse, but I thing it is no worse, and possibly better than the Leaf. The e-Golf is the best of the three, but is not all that great.

Have you tried putting the Leaf in neutral, and coasting? If you hold in in N for ~2s - or put it in R - you can try coasting. Just don't use the R method below 7MPH - or you will go into reverse; instead of neutral!

This can help increase the efficiency, for sure.

How does this save anything over buying all 4 at once?
-mort

You put all 4 new tires on at once your mileage goes down to around 3 miles per kwh. If you depend on your range to be at least 4 miles per kwh that would be bad to suddenly get 3.
Maybe for some people it's not a problem at all, because they have chargers everywhere.

That leaf rolls better than just about anything I have had so far. I usually let the car roll from 45 to 60 mph to 10 to 20 mph in eco then use the hydraulic brakes to stop. They like 4 way stops signs here.

Or if there is a discount on a four tire buy, then buy all four and only mount one new tire per break in period. If it's 400 miles do that. If a week of normal riding seems good then go with that schedule.
JJ

We averaged well over 5 miles / kWh in our Leaf, and often averaged above 6 in the summer. In the winter I think we averaged 4.5 miles / kWh. I think the worst was in the winter, and was about 3.8 or so. We had a base model with a resistance heater. The battery had the cold weather warming, and it takes more to charge, because the battery has to be warm enough, to avoid damage.

Have you tried coasting in neutral?

I do coast it in neutral.

On mine it sees a lot of driving on the state highway where the speed limit is 65mph.
5 or 6 miles per kwh seems very doable in city driving.

I also use my leaf like a pickup and some times a tractor.
Pulling the trailer, on the highway. A few weeks ago I bought a forklift battery and hauled it back home with the leaf.
Today I'm going to take the trailer to take my pressure washer to my rental hous, grab my apartment size electric dryer I don't hardly use and take it to its new home and bring back a load of conduit from lowes. The nearest lowes is about 30 miles from hom.
I used the leaf to pull my chain harrow around my field.