What are best replacement tires for the Ford Focus Electric?
There are many things to take into consideration when selecting replacement tires. One is how the vehicle will be used, and the type of driving conditions. If you drive in snowy conditions then all season tires that do well in the snow are a must. Since the electric vehicles are so quite road noise from tires should be taken into consideration. Picking the wrong tire will adversely affect the vehicles driving range. I recently went to Tire Racks web site found that they sold 115 tires that would fit the Ford Focus Electric. Of these 115 tires only 28 were LRR (Low Rolling Resistance). Tire rolling resistance has an impact on vehicle fuel consumption estimated to range from about 4% during urban driving to 7% during highway driving.
Tire Rack did a test on Low Rolling Resistance tires to see just how well they stack up. For the test they used a 2nd generation Toyota Prius. The OEM tires on the Prius are Goodyear Integrity. The test showed that fuel economy could be improved by as much as 2 MPG by simple switching tires. The Goodyear Integrity tires are LRR tires. So selecting a non LRR tire could adversely affect the driving distance of an electric vehicle.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=121
The Stock tires on the Focus Electric are Michelin Energy Saver A/S P225/50R17. The Michelin Energy Saver did return the best fuel economy on the Toyota Prius. So it looks like Ford did do their research well when they selected these tires for the FFE. So picking the wrong tire could result in a reduction in driving range of about 4 to 8 miles per charge.
Is there an advantage to filling your tires with nitrogen?
Air is 78 percent nitrogen, just under 21 percent oxygen, and the rest is water vapor, CO2 and small concentrations of noble gases such as neon and argon. We can ignore the other gases.
First is that nitrogen is less likely to migrate through tire rubber than is oxygen, which means that your tire pressures will remain more stable over the long term. Tires filled with nitrogen will see a smaller pressure change with temperature swings. Low tire pressure will increase the energy need to move the vehicle. It also reduces the chance of the pressure climbing to high under hot condtions.
But there's more: Humidity (water) is a Bad Thing to have inside a tire. Water, present as a vapor or even as a liquid in a tire, causes more of a pressure change with temperature swings than dry air does. It also promotes corrosion of the steel or aluminum rim.
There are many things to take into consideration when selecting replacement tires. One is how the vehicle will be used, and the type of driving conditions. If you drive in snowy conditions then all season tires that do well in the snow are a must. Since the electric vehicles are so quite road noise from tires should be taken into consideration. Picking the wrong tire will adversely affect the vehicles driving range. I recently went to Tire Racks web site found that they sold 115 tires that would fit the Ford Focus Electric. Of these 115 tires only 28 were LRR (Low Rolling Resistance). Tire rolling resistance has an impact on vehicle fuel consumption estimated to range from about 4% during urban driving to 7% during highway driving.
Tire Rack did a test on Low Rolling Resistance tires to see just how well they stack up. For the test they used a 2nd generation Toyota Prius. The OEM tires on the Prius are Goodyear Integrity. The test showed that fuel economy could be improved by as much as 2 MPG by simple switching tires. The Goodyear Integrity tires are LRR tires. So selecting a non LRR tire could adversely affect the driving distance of an electric vehicle.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=121
The Stock tires on the Focus Electric are Michelin Energy Saver A/S P225/50R17. The Michelin Energy Saver did return the best fuel economy on the Toyota Prius. So it looks like Ford did do their research well when they selected these tires for the FFE. So picking the wrong tire could result in a reduction in driving range of about 4 to 8 miles per charge.
Is there an advantage to filling your tires with nitrogen?
Air is 78 percent nitrogen, just under 21 percent oxygen, and the rest is water vapor, CO2 and small concentrations of noble gases such as neon and argon. We can ignore the other gases.
First is that nitrogen is less likely to migrate through tire rubber than is oxygen, which means that your tire pressures will remain more stable over the long term. Tires filled with nitrogen will see a smaller pressure change with temperature swings. Low tire pressure will increase the energy need to move the vehicle. It also reduces the chance of the pressure climbing to high under hot condtions.
But there's more: Humidity (water) is a Bad Thing to have inside a tire. Water, present as a vapor or even as a liquid in a tire, causes more of a pressure change with temperature swings than dry air does. It also promotes corrosion of the steel or aluminum rim.