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Comment by reenorap | Hacker News Reader

It cost me $1600 to change the 4 tires for my Tesla because they are “energy efficient” and matched my original tires. I do not want the tires for my other car to be this expensive. I don’t care about efficiency those tires are literally 4X the price of my other car a Honda.

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My Honda’s energy efficient tires are cheap. Your Tesla tires are expensive because of their lower volume and high performance design. They have different compound and more durable construction to handle the weight and torque better, and have noise dampening inserts.

An energy efficient tire for a Honda is just a mid priced tire for a Honda, and probably cheaper to install because they likely use just a $0.50 rubber valve stem too.

They're different, yes, but not that different from the others. The price difference mostly comes from the fact that those who can afford pricey EVs also can afford pricey EV tires and as such they're priced the way they are. Once EVs come down in price to match or go below ICE-powered cars tire prices will go down as well.

I don't think it's just because they are "energy efficient". Teslas are heavy, powerful vehicles. The tires they need are usually rated for extra load (XL), and have a high speed rating (W/Y). If you went for EV tyres they likely contain an acoustic lining too as road noise is more noticeable in one. Unclear if that's really needed though. Either way it sounds like you went for premium tires which is probably the right choice for a ~400hp, 2 ton car.

The energy efficient tires for my Chevy EV are $800 for a set of 4. You're paying the luxury car parts tax.

most of a passenger car's performance and handling is its tires

Isnt that because it has crazy torque, AWD, and high weight?

Same thing with ebike tires vs normal bike tires

Mine are really close to needing to be replaced and I’m not looking forward to the 1500+ it’ll cost. I’ve gone further than the est lifespan at least.

you can cheaper ones. i'm shopping for them on discount tires.com and there;'s some for like 100$ per tire.

Look for low rolling resistance. chat gpt helps with this a lot

Are the wheels a weird size? What stopped you from replacing them with regular tires?

Not the OP, but for my EV, it was a combination of higher load rating because batteries are heavy, tread compound needing to be different (more expensive) because of high torque requirements, and rolling resistance and tire noise being much more important for EVs than ICE cars.

1. Shop around, there are cheaper tyres with same specs

2. Yours probably have foam for silent operation

3. They also have higher load spec, lower rolling resistance, stronger sidewall

4. Most importantly, they are likely much wider than normal car tyre, since Tesla's are quite high performing.

Also I would get tires changed in Nevada in this case.

So, your Honda is worth $400?

Don't be obtuse. He was saying 4x the cost of the tires.

I once sold a fully working car for $250, so why not

> those tires are literally 4X the price of my other car a Honda

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