How about the gemini wheels? Would that be able to help this person out in this situation?
<The following is a guess based on what I know, if any corrections please correct!>
If you get the ones for the Model 3, it would be just fine and it would probably help due to the aero design. ($3500 for the package - I didn't see them standalone -
Model 3 19” Gemini Wheel and Winter Tire Package) These are 8.5" presumably with 35mm offset and are presumably machined for the hub lip since they are for the 3P+. But then you're also stuck with more expensive 19" tires which may not have optimized rolling resistance.
The ones for the Model Y would require fitting carefully, since they are 9.5" wide and they have a 45mm offset. Both those things work against clearance (~12.5mm + 10mm clearance reduction I think). I don't know whether they have accommodations for the Model 3 hub lip.
You want a 35mm offset on the 3P+, so that means you'd need to run a 5mm spacer at least. I think 10mm probably can't get away with due to the lug length. With 5mm, you'd have to be careful about clearances to the upper control arm. It would probably clear, but I'm not sure.
I don't know whether there are any other major deal breakers here. I'm sure it's been covered somewhere already.
And you'd have 9.5" wide tires, which would defeat the purpose of having low rolling resistance.
So I think picking up Model Y Gemini wheels for cheap is pointless. Have to get the Model 3 Gemini.
The wheels don't matter a whole lot. It's primarily dictated by the tires.
I agree that tires matter a lot, especially for every day mixed use (city and freeway), but I believe that for freeway-only driving (road trips) the aero of the wheels probably makes a decent difference as
@MountainPass said. That being said, the relative contribution is...who knows. People do get a couple % efficiency improvement (dependent on exact speed) by running aeros at freeway speeds, from what I understand. That could be significant and possibly even just as important as tires, for high speed travel. Since the force required to overcome tire losses is constant while the force to overcome aero losses increases with the square of speed (power required is the cube of course, but we care about force).
