Does Your EV Need Winter Tires?
Reading Time: 3 minutesEVs often have all-wheel drive due to their configuration, but does that mean you can do without winter tires?
Electric vehicles are equipped with many features that make winter driving more enjoyable. For example, many EVs are also AWD, meaning you can drive with confidence year-round.
But the fact that many electric vehicles are all-wheel drive doesn’t mean that a good set of winter tires won’t make a huge difference when it comes time to embark on an icy commute.
What’s the Point of Winter Tires?
Winter tires are specifically made for superior grip during the wintertime. This means that the tire is specifically designed to handle rough wintry conditions, such as heavy snow and ice.
The material that comprises summer tires will inevitably harden and cause the tires to lose grip. Meanwhile, the tread compound of winter tires is specially formulated to stay nice and soft when the weather gets colder. This will help keep the tire grippy in cold weather, something that summer tires won’t be able to accomplish.
Winter tires reduce braking distances in freezing weather and can help your vehicle grip the snow better by packing snow into the deep grooves of the tread pattern. Snow packed into these grooves will stick to the snow on the ground and help to increase overall traction.
Using a set of winter tires increases your safety in frigid weather. So, even if you have one of the best EVs for winter driving, you can still benefit from proper winter rubber.
Does Your AWD EV Need Winter Tires?
AWD does help to get your vehicle out of sticky situations during all weather conditions, but some things can’t be remedied by all-wheel drive alone. For example, one of the greatest benefits of winter tires is that the compound doesn’t harden in the cold, and AWD does nothing to remedy this.
If your summer tire becomes brittle, the grip will eventually diminish because the tire can’t conform and grip to the irregularities on the road. EVs are also usually heavier than a typical car. Thus, reducing braking distance is super important. Winter tires can help reduce a vehicle’s braking distance and improve grip on snow.
There are EV-specific winter tires available, so if you’re shopping for a set of winter tires, it would be wise to investigate an option that has been engineered with electric vehicles in mind.
Winter tires also feature awesome sipes (small lines cut into the tread pattern) that help the tire grip more effectively in snowy conditions. Basically, even if your electric vehicle is equipped with all-wheel drive, like the awesome Rivian R1T, a good set of winter tires will help it perform better when the weather gets freezing.
What About All-Weather Tires?
All-weather tires can be used year-round if the temperatures aren’t too extreme. But, during icy winters, all-season tires are compromised. These tires blend design elements from summer tires with winter tires, but the compound will also begin to harden once the temperature drops severely, and you’ll be left with all the disadvantages of a hardened tire.
Nothing beats a dedicated winter tire for icy conditions, especially if the winter tire has studs built in. It might be annoying to have to buy a dedicated set of tires for wintertime, but it’s a worthwhile investment if you live somewhere that experiences a rough climate. The most important factor to consider is the tire’s material and how it reacts to the intense cold that wintry climates are subjected to.
Again, all-season tires can definitely be used year-round in places where the weather doesn’t experience huge variations, but if you insist on keeping them during intense winter weather, be ready to ride on a compromised, stone-like compound.
This will end up compromising braking and performance. It really doesn’t matter if there isn’t snow on the road because if it’s cold enough, the tire will still experience hardening and lose its ability to perform as a tire should.
Yes, You Should Use Winter Tires With Your EV
Electric vehicles have many advantages over ICE cars, but grip and overall safety during winter driving are still at the mercy of proper tires. Choosing the right winter tires for your EV will help keep you and other drivers safe during the colder months of the year.