MYLR winter tires, studs or no studs?

[AM-can]

Hi everyone,

First winter for me with my 2023 MYLR. I’m looking for winter tires recommendations to get the very best grip on various road conditions, especially at higher speed and also when cornering. I was first looking at the Nokian Hakka 10 EV (studded), but then I went for the Nokian Hakka R5 EV (studless) because I was afraid of not being able to tolerate studded tires noise as well as the potential loss of traction on dry pavement.

Although I have very good winter tires, I still find my MY to be a little tail happy sometimes and it kind of scares me when it happens at higher speed. I can’t say how disapointed I was when I first realized that it does act like a RWD (80% rear and 20% front power) even though it’s an AWD. I saw a big improvement in harsh conditions using chill mode, as well as Off Road Assist, but it looks like I still have a hard time being confident enough when there is a lot of compacted snow and ice on the highway. I’m getting more and more used to regen, but I wish we could set it to low someday.

I live near Montreal, Canada, where we recently had tons of snow/ice and really cold temperature (-40C). I wouldn’t say we live in extreme winter conditions, as we drive on somewhat dry pavement 50% of the time, but it can get very bad quickly and you never know when you’ll have to drive in those conditions. Being a father of 2, all I’m looking for is maximal security at any time while driving during winter, but I can’t figure out what tires are the best for me.

Any feedback concerning studded winter tires for a MYLR would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

PS: I bought a different 19 inches wheelset for winter as I thought 20 inches induction wheels are probably not ideal.

 

[rwiegand]

Studded tires make a significant difference on ice, not much, if any, difference in snow. I don't think there's anything special about Tesla's in that regard except that the high acceleration and heavy weight of the vehicle will accentuate the problem in starting and stopping respectively.

Winter has yet to arrive in MA as of yet this year in MA, so no real world experience.

 

[AM-can]

Studded tires make a significant difference on ice, not much, if any, difference in snow. I don't think there's anything special about Tesla's in that regard except that the high acceleration and heavy weight of the vehicle will accentuate the problem in starting and stopping respectively.

Winter has yet to arrive in MA as of yet this year in MA, so no real world experience.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. This is also what I read, but I can’t say for sure how much studded tires are going to help me being more secure behind the wheels and how the MY is going to be performing the rest of the time on dry pavement as compared to studless tires. I have absolutely no experience with studs, so I can’t also tell how bad the noise is going to be.

Thank you!

 

[rwiegand]

Not as good as the stock tires most of the time, much louder, significant traction improvement on ice. My experience is from growing up with rear wheel drive cars in northern Ohio where studs made a big difference in staying out of the ditch and my cars were old junkers that didn’t handle well under any circumstance. Haven’t had or felt the need for them since the advent of front wheel drive.

 

[Midnightsun]

I am also located in Montreal and would not choose studded. First off they are very damaging to garage floors so if you have a nice garage you do not want to drive it in there. Most indoor parking prohibits studs for this reason same with most condo associations. The only time studs are beneficial is on pure ice or well packed snow that has turned to ice. Montreal uses so much salt on almost all their road that ice conditions are far and few between. If you were up in Fermont then maybe worth while.

 

[AM-can]

I am also located in Montreal and would not choose studded. First off they are very damaging to garage floors so if you have a nice garage you do not want to drive it in there. Most indoor parking prohibits studs for this reason same with most condo associations. The only time studs are beneficial is on pure ice or well packed snow that has turned to ice. Montreal uses so much salt on almost all their road that ice conditions are far and few between. If you were up in Fermont then maybe worth while.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. This is exactly my thought right now and main reason why I went studless. I only wish I could try studded to see the difference but it is not as simple as that. I have one of the best studless winter tires, but I can’t say I am 100% satisfied. I think I simply feel disappointed in the way the MY handles snow/ice conditions in its normal settings. I really thought I was buying an AWD SUV with which I could through snowstorms easily and without any stressfull events coming my way. Hopefully there is going to be a SNOW mode which is going to help someday.

Thank you!

 

[Midnightsun]

The AWD system on a Tesla takes a bit to get used to since it rear wheel bias. This allows the rear to kick out just a tiny bit before the front kicks in. A little nerve wrecking at first as one does not expect this however once you get used to it you will see the car does extremely well in winter conditions and this trait is nothing to worry about. Go out by yourself and with nobody around give her a bunch of throttle in curves and just try to spin her out, difficult to do to say the least as the system takes over and corrects really quickly.

There is a built in snow mode so to say as Tesla has refined it over the years which is not selectable, rather through sensors detecting a combo of wheel slip, temperature and yaw or at least this is what I read somewhere. My first 2020 with the Y was definitely not as surefooted as it is now. All this trough software tweaks.

Don't forget, AWD only helps when accelerating giving you better traction that is rather evident when accelerating from a standstill in slippery conditions. Stopping and normal driving really changes little compared to a non AWD vehicle and this is where the quality of a winter tire will make a difference in control.

 

[AM-can]

The AWD system on a Tesla takes a bit to get used to since it rear wheel bias. This allows the rear to kick out just a tiny bit before the front kicks in. A little nerve wrecking at first as one does not expect this however once you get used to it you will see the car does extremely well in winter conditions and this trait is nothing to worry about. Go out by yourself and with nobody around give her a bunch of throttle in curves and just try to spin her out, difficult to do to say the least as the system takes over and corrects really quickly.

There is a built in snow mode so to say as Tesla has refined it over the years which is not selectable, rather through sensors detecting a combo of wheel slip, temperature and yaw or at least this is what I read somewhere. My first 2020 with the Y was definitely not as surefooted as it is now. All this trough software tweaks.

Don't forget, AWD only helps when accelerating giving you better traction that is rather evident when accelerating from a standstill in slippery conditions. Stopping and normal driving really changes little compared to a non AWD vehicle and this is where the quality of a winter tire will make a difference in control.

What you say is right. I never completely lost control, but when I feel the rear kicking out, even just a tiny bit, while changing lanes on highway at 100 kmh it is definately a little nerve wrecking. Since I put on chill mode it does help, but I feel that Off Road Assist is what makes the Y more stable in slippery conditions. Traction control looks still enabled by doing so, but I’m not sure if this mode is meant to be used on highway or higher speed roads..

 

[avramd]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. This is exactly my thought right now and main reason why I went studless. I only wish I could try studded to see the difference but it is not as simple as that. I have one of the best studless winter tires, but I can’t say I am 100% satisfied. I think I simply feel disappointed in the way the MY handles snow/ice conditions in its normal settings. I really thought I was buying an AWD SUV with which I could through snowstorms easily and without any stressfull events coming my way. Hopefully there is going to be a SNOW mode which is going to help someday.

Thank you!

AM-can, if you haven't seen it, you might get some useful perspective in the thread I started about track mode snow settings. While the primary subject is not relevant to non-P owners, a lot of the details are still relevant. The spoiler in your case is that I took my MYP to winter driving school with studded Hakka 9's, and the cars with studless ice tires absolutely schooled me on ice.

The advantage they had over me on ice was comparable to the advantage that any good snow tire has on snow compared to most all-season tires. It was profound enough that I immediately went out looking for for studless ice tires. I replaced the Hakka 9's with Hakka R5's, and am scheduled to go to another Winter Driving School next weekend to see how they compare, and get used to them.

I will say though that I was quite happy with how quiet the studded 9's were on my MYP. Obviously they were not as quiet as a non-studded tire, but they were still quieter than an ICE car. Hakka's have some pretty significant technology in them for reducing stud noise. A lot of people have seemingly near trauma-level memories of how loud studs used to be on dry pavement. Hakka's don't deserve this reputation. I ran them on my Outbacks, and I could barely tell when they were on, except at super-low speeds.

One detail to clarify - and it sounds like you already know this, so this is more in case anyone reading this does not know this: "Studless" and "non-studded" do not mean the same thing. The terminology in the industry is inconsistent, but generally, "non-studded" or simply not mentioning the word "stud" in a winter tire category means "not an ice tire." On the other hand, "Studless" is usually short for "studdless ice tire." Hakka R5's are a studless ice tire. This means that they have a special compound that interacts with ice at a microscopic level such that they at least equal, and supposedly generally exceed studded performance on ice.