Are EV tyres worth it? Find out in this tyre comparison test.

I always look forward to your videos but was disappointed in this one as it was an infomercial. Surely a more useful comparison of tyres would be to see what improvement was gained in putting EV specific ones on a car that had non-EV specifics on.

Great channel, usually! Leave tyre assessing to those that do it properly.....and those that do, mainly conclude that EV specific tyres are more of a compromise than a benefit. But you & Hankook probably know that. Pretty poor !

I love your channel, but this video was too commercial 😅 I must admit that you did a great job explaining the characteristics of the tyres 😉

Come on guys, get a sound meter app on your phone!
You are only doing a comparison, it doesn't need to be calibrated.

Another difference comparing EVs to ICE is the low centre of gravity of an EV, which seems to load the tyres differently. I fitted Hankooks last autumn to my 'classic' 2016 Model S, just before I travelled down to southern Italy for 6 weeks. I'd had Pirellis and Michelins before. The Hankooks are everything they claim, better grip, easily more efficient and notably quieter. They are also wearing well. I'm planning to fit some of their new FlexiClimate tyres before I head back down to Italy at the end of November. It'll be good to see how they compare to the iON Evos.

Normally, I base my tyres on wet grip vs cost.
Currently on Uniroyal rainsport, for the great Scottish weather...🙄

Considering rounding errors the mileage could well be about only 0.1 Miles/KWh appart as well as 0.3 Miles/KWh ? ... in the worst case rounding errors possibly ending up being twice as high as the actual difference. If it is just 3.449 to 3.55 that would mean a difference of 2.9%
... adding different "driving pleasures" to it, as well as slight changes in speed, acceleration profiles, wind speeds,.. and what not more...

Love your videos and work in general, but this video is too "close" to a commercial for me this time, though still entertaining.

How was the temperature during each run? Might that have impacted the performance some?

Nice to see you liked the ID.3. I'm about to swap my Golf GTE for an ID.3. I'm really looking forward to the increased boot space!

Thank you, that was a good test.

Hello. My only question about this comparison test would be, were the "old" tyres a brand new set as well? If they had done several thousand miles, surely the wear and tear would have some effect on noise and even rolling resistance? We all know that brand new tyres make a car feel quieter and more "perky" so I would ask you to re-run the test, if you could. But, brilliant content, thank you!

A fascinating look at what 'system' means in the EV world, including tires.

So how did you measure the sound. Did you use any kind of noise metre?

Even 3.6 miles per kilowatt hour is not very impressive in mixed driving with lots of regen. I would have expected 4.5+.

As a EV van driver I would find a set of low noise tyres really useful

Been driving electric since 2013 and have always just bought 'standard' tyres. Never had any issues, never seen any real reduction in range either.

I completely understand people complaining that this was effectively an informercial for Hankook Ion tires. But, it was also generally informative about why a person should purchase EV specific tires. The balancing of demands must be adjusted just like an engineer would for racing tires for rally versus Formula 1. I do wonder how those features will age as the tire wears.

One thing I would have liked to see would be a BLIND test. Cover the names on the tires so the driver doesn't know which ones are on the car. Otherwise there is far too much self-bias - you WANT the tyres to behave better, so you subconsciously drive better. I know you think you drove the same, but you control your subconscious.
The other thing I would have liked to see would be for you to NOT KEEP SAYING THE NAME OF THE TYRES WRONG. It says CONTACT not CONNECT.

I switched from EV tyres to all seasons. Which are quieter, give better grip. Yet still give the same efficiency. Not alone in the E-Niro in doing so.

Congratulations on your new appointment with the Hankook marketing team.

Very interesting and just goes to show what a difference different tyres can make.... Well done chaps

I got some Michelin e-Primacy, not sure about the actual range extension but the're A-rated for efficiency

Would it not be better to compare same spec EV and non EV tyres?. E.g Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 3 - They have them as standard and EV (EV ones +70 quid each) Both A/B/A rating. Is the EV 69dB rolling noise quieter than the non EV 69dB? Does the EV A rating use less energy than the non EV A rating? Otherwise I still don't know if EV tyres are worth!

Enjoyed seeing Bug Zappa drag racing on CarWow!

So...
Basically...
Has absolutely nothing to do with being "EV" tires.
The Hankook tires would provide the same benefits on an ICE car.

I have a 2021 VW ID.4 1st Edition in the US and the OEM Bridgestone tires wore out int 15,000 miles. Then I put on Pirelli winter tires and they lasted about the same. Pirelli non-winter stood up a little better and came with a mileage warranty. I am now on Hankook ION SUV EV with warranty. Fingers crossed.

Not going to fib. the first mention I'd ever heard of EV Tyres I was. Have you taken leave of what little mind you possess??? 0~o but, without testing a standard set of Tyres, why?

Thank you for posting this video.

Nice segment sir- appreciate you working to introduce and explain some of the tire options open to us sceptical of the bright sparks in tire marketing selling a bill of goods. In my case, more range for my Mini SE’s pretty sad 180ish km universe would be very welcome. Even 5%!

On the subject of noise measurement, I thought I’d try to capture the difference in ambient interior sound in your car for each tire by running your video on a laptop and using a decibel app on my phone. Same volume setting, same distance from the speakers. (My spouse as it happens specializes in acoustics for the aviation industry and could hardly stifle her scorn at my low rent project, giving me a grocery list of faults with my methodology but nevermind her meddlesome naysaying….onwards!)

The upshot is I measured 70.4 dB out of the speakers during your 50mph run for the first set of tires and 68.7 for the Hankooks. Granted it was hard to find more than a second or two of footage without you gents yakking - lol.
Submitted for your consideration and worth about what ya paid for it…😎

You can always download a decibel meter app to your phone. Free. "Oh, but it's not calibrated scientifically...!" Well, if you use the same app on the same phone, for both sets of tires, you'll still arrive at a valid comparison.

When I bought my new car - Hyundai 1.4lt Getz GSI Automatic - in 2006, it came with Hankook tyres. Not only were they very noisy, they didn't wear well, so I swapped them for something with a better Noise Rating. I'm going to need to change my tyres before the next MOT, so I'm wondering is these EV tyres are worth putting on my car, to try to improve the handling and fuel consumption. Russ. Hampshire.

Great test! Is there more wear on an EV over an ICE vehicles? All the other savings out weigh a little tire wear, if that’s the case.

Thanks for watching

I love Hankook tyres, been using them for years....on ICE cars. However, with our Nissan Leaf I was surprised at the huge price hike for EV/ECO tyres. Unless I get twice the mileage out of them it just doesn't make sense.

Interesting video. However, it may have been worth adding a few more fields in your conclusion, for instance, price, wear and availability are something I found important when buying EV tyres. It's great having a super efficient, high performance set of tyres which are very quiet, but if they costs a fortune and only last for a few thousand miles they aren't for me.
Hope to see a few more similar videos in the future. 👍

Scrap the EV crap.

Love you guys but you should have a double blind test .. NOT DRIVING BLIND! But your team should have prepped the car and not told you ..

I really like Hankook. They don't make any iON in the size of the Zoe, so I got the Ventus Prime 4 summer and Winter i*cept RS3 winter tyres. Really efficient and comfortable tyres, don't regret buying from them. All Michelins that I had always felt too stiff. Had the S1 Evo3 on a Megane RS, and those tyres made the car more comfortable and less noisy on longer journeys compared to the Bridgestones it came with.

Interesting video Richard, I must admit I have had Hankook tyres on my company ICE cars and found them very safe to drive on. Tyre life was comparable to other brands at 25k rear and 40k front on average. Ride quality and tyre noise were also probably better than the competitors. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿😎

I’m embarking on a T2 conversion. Any thoughts on good tyres for a T2? Probably going for the original steels.

I appreciate the "test" of these two tires. ("Tires" not "tyres" 'cause I'm a 'Murkin. Please don't hold that against me. 🙃) I'd like to point out a few things:
1. It's good that you did the runs on the same day so there is less variability in weather. Problem is you made the out run on one set of tires and the run back on the other set. If the trip is generally more uphill in one direction that the other, that would easily affect the energy economy numbers.
2. The "test" was one run on each set of tires. Granted, this is prob not meant to be an exhaustive test, but making at least several runs on each set of tires in both directions, throwing out the best and worst numbers and averaging the rest would produce a more "real" result.

I'm a bit of a geek so I obsessively record every bit of info from my 2011 LEAF every time I plug it in: date, time, temperature, trip length, average trip speed, energy economy, charging time, etc. In the early years of my LEAF ownership, I have used two EV-specific tires. Since, I've run high performance summer tires. The hundreds of data points from each set of tires showed that there is barely any differences between the different tires! Indeed, there was barely any differences between different tire pressures: the OEM 36 psi versus 44 psi!

My theory is that there are probably differences between tires and pressures, but they are small relative to other variables: weather, road condition/traction, imprecision in how the car is driven, terrain, the level of blinker fluid 🙃, etc.

5% more rnage????? wow will definitely consider these when I change the tyres on my leaf

i switched to Hankook ions for my 2015 models S a few years ago, they seem to last a bit longer, I was getting 30,000kms on old tyres and now seem to get 50,000kms. I'm In French alps so my tyres get a pounding with all the mountain roads i use, I'm sure you could get more life out of tyres in a flatter area. They do make a noticeable difference in efficiency especially when travelling at lower speeds, in town and normal roads, on motorways the difference seem less than at lower speeds maybe due to aero drag being a more significant factor at higher speeds. All our family all seemed to think they were quieter than old tyres. overall I would recommend them.

Why didn't you test these against standard road tyres

For sound measurements you could have used a mobile app like decibel meter🎤 Keep that in mind for next time 😉

Low rolling resistance tires are low grip tires. This is very important to be aware of. As long as the weight rating is OK the tire is OK to use. Michalin pro climate plus are my favourite all weather tires.