Lift and Bigger Tires Impact on Battery Range

[Doctors Do Little]

Switching to A/T tires alone can reduce range by 10–20% compared to EV-specific all-season tires.

Taller A/T tires also increase braking distance, adversely affect handling, and accelerate parts wear.

I was originally planning on getting a lift + taller A/T tires, and even spent a lot of time searching around for what would be be the best tire to choose. The result was this thread:

Taller 17" All-Terrain Tires for OEM Wheels​

In the end I decided taller A/T tires are 95% just for looks on the Slate and provide too little juice for too much squeeze. YMMV.

FWIW...

Now I'm looking for a tire+wheel combination that will make the car more fun to drive around town.

Mid-profile tires on lightweight 18" or 19" wheels, in contrast to taller A/T tires, can improve braking distance, favorably affect handling, and reduce parts wear. Mine will be run-flat tires so I will avoid the extra expense and inconvenience of carrying a spare.

But then you’ll lose the cool factor of having the big parachute-like spare rig on the back!

 

[KevinRS]

It's going to take some testing to see what the tonneau covers impacts are on range. With proper aero design of the base truck, and at the right speeds, a tonneau cover will actually lower range. This is because the truck would have a detached "bubble" or vortex of air in the bed that smooths airflow, adding the cover disrupts it.
As far as we know, while they kept to a design that looks traditional, they ran a lot of iterations in simulation to get drag down. Little things like the little wings at the back of the cab and on the tailgate would be part of this optimization.

I'll let someone else test and see what the effect of a cover is, with actual numbers before I think about buying one.

 

[coregrind]

One thing to keep in mind if you move to a taller tire compared to stock is that your actual mileage will be higher than what the odometer reads. This likely won’t be as great as the anticipated range loss but it’s something to consider in the equation.

 

[AZFox]

One thing to keep in mind if you move to a taller tire compared to stock is that your actual mileage will be higher than what the odometer reads. This likely won’t be as great as the anticipated range loss but it’s something to consider in the equation.

There's a chance the tire size will be able to be set in the app.

 

[coregrind]

There's a chance the tire size will be able to be set in the app.

🤯

Wow. That’s great. I plan to slightly undersize for my tire choice so it’s good to know I may be able to recalibrate.

 

[AZFox]

Heh

 

[danielt1263]

The only thing I can input is that my ICE car looses about 15% range when I'm towing my boat (mostly 45mph). It will be interesting to see how the Slate fares...

 

[Doctors Do Little]

The only thing I can input is that my ICE car looses about 15% range when I'm towing my boat (mostly 45mph). It will be interesting to see how the Slate fares...

Fiddy

 

[HTXSlate]

I would like to think since it’s a factory tire upgrade, they would adjust the speedo for the different size

One thing to keep in mind if you move to a taller tire compared to stock is that your actual mileage will be higher than what the odometer reads. This likely won’t be as great as the anticipated range loss but it’s something to consider in the equation.

 

[007]

I think we can expect an accurate speedometer with optional factory tires. It's been that way since the early 1960s, at least.

 

[Frozen North]

I think we can expect an accurate speedometer with optional factory tires. It's been that way since the early 1960s, at least.

Slate is offering to ship them to you and let you install them also. It seems more likely that you will be able to change that in the app, which would be done for you if they are installed for you.
At least I hope it works that way.
Even better though is if the car could sense the difference in distance traveled reported by the wheel speed sensors and the early collision warning system to automatically adjust the speedometer for you with whatever size tire you choose.

 

[danielt1263]

Even better though is if the car could sense the difference in distance traveled reported by the wheel speed sensors and the early collision warning system to automatically adjust the speedometer for you with whatever size tire you choose.

Or just have a feature in the app to calibrate your speedometer based on the phone's GPS?

 

[professor_hank]

here's an idea from my Lucid -- Touring with 19" range 420 miles, 22" 380 miles. So you're going to lose range with larger tires, don't know about lift

I would say that, given the aerodynamic drag of the slate, your range difference is gonna be dictated by the increased. Rolling resistance of the larger tires, how much it's affected by the change in effective gear ratio depends on choices that were made in the first place. I know that the it's approximately 12 to 1 ratio so. I doubt that that by itself will make much difference. I think it's already up out of ground effect . So I don't think it's gonna be nearly as much a difference as it made on a lucid, but that's just my opinion. I also intend to go with a taller tire, but I'm gonna stay with the 17 inch. Wheel, I like a little more sidewall, and I'll pick my own off-road tread and tire, but yeah, I'm willing to give up as much as 10%. Ten percent on the slate is less of a sacrifice.Then it is on the lucid

 

[LoneWolfo6]

I have decided to go with the lift kit and bigger tires than the base stock tire. Adding a little weight with the rear tire carrier as well. How much would range be effected by these changes? My commute situation does not make this a true concern, but I am curious if someone with more knowledge than I can provide a ballpark number how much this would impact range.

Going to be awesome, these are most “to and from” work, school, play.

Not a major mover.

Looks good! 😊

 

[Daemoch]

Some fuel for your fires: