Wheel Size Impacts Battery Range of Electric Vehicles
From saving money on fuel to lowering driving footprints, electric vehicles offer many benefits. To capitalize on the performance of your EV, you should look to its foundation. The size of your EV’s wheels can impact its efficiency, handling, and battery range.
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EV tires bear a heavy weight
Since tires bear the weight of a vehicle, it’s important your car’s tires are up to the challenge. An electric car weighs more than a one powered by a conventional engine due to the size of the battery. And you don’t want to interrupt the silent crawl of your EV by choosing tires that are the wrong size. If the tires are too small or big, they can screech.
Photo: Nissan
“An ideal tire will not only improve efficiency, but it will also provide better handling, cornering, braking, grip, and performance,” reports Fossbytes.com writer Shaheer Anwar.
Low rolling resistance
You’ll also want tires that deliver low rolling resistance. “Higher rolling resistance means more energy is needed to move the car forward and hence less battery range,” Anwar explains. (Even if you’re driving a gasoline-powered car, you’d want your tires to have low rolling resistance to bolster its efficiency).
Bigger is not better
Bigger wheels are not always better, though. Although bigger wheels accommodate wider tires and grip the road better, they will deplete the battery range of an EV that’s equipped with a small engine. Instead of the advantageous low rolling resistance you want, you’ll end up with higher rolling resistance.
Photo: Nissan
Consider tire material
The material of the tire also impacts its grip. Thankfully, today’s tires feature a new component — silica. “Silica offers less friction; its molecules are bouncy, which in turn provides low rolling resistance, whereas carbon tires due to friction offer high rolling resistance. Furthermore, when burned carbon tires contribute greatly to emissions,” Anwar reports.
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The type of tires you should have on your EV depends on what you value in your vehicle. Small tires are better for efficiency while performance is maximized by bigger wheels.
Ideally, you should stick with your EV’s manufacturer-provided tires for best performance and efficiency. If you’re looking to upgrade, talk to a mechanic to get advice on what will work for your specific vehicle.
DeAnn Owens is a Dayton transplant by way of the Windy City, yet considers herself to be a California girl at heart even though she’s only visited there once. To get through the dreaded allergy season unique to the Miami Valley, she reads, writes, complains about the weather, and enjoys spending time with her husband, two sons, and their newest addition, a Boston terrier puppy that is now in charge of all their lives. In the future, she hopes to write a novel and travel through time. See more articles by DeAnn.