So, here is an update after driving about 500 miles on my P Zero Elects….
I still love the way they drive, the quietness, and the ride quality.
The efficiency is about 15 wh/mi higher than the Goodyear Assymetric 5’s. Maybe it will go down a little after they break in a bit more, but I do not think they will ever be as efficient as the Goodyear’s. This is mainly because the tire is heavy (31 lbs/tire advertised). Or maybe it’s better to say that the Goodyears are light (26 lbs/tire advertised). And you can feel the weight difference when accelerating and regen braking.
My primary goal was to get a tire that is all season similarly efficient to the Goodyears, but with better treadlife. The Pirelli’s are AS’s, have guaranteed better treadlife, but the efficiency isn’t there. Due to this, plus the slower acceleration and braking, I’ve decided I’m going back to discount tire and swapping for a set of Michelin PS4’s AS. My hunch is that these will be marginally lighter, with similar or better driving characteristics. I think it’ll optimize the factors I care about, but will still compromise slightly in order to get the better treadlife and “true” all season capability…
So I had the Michelin's installed on Monday of this week and have driven them almost 300 miles. My unscientific testing has shown that the efficiency seems to be about the same as the Pirellis, but maybe even slightly worse. Could be the temperatures or weather that accounts for the difference, but hard to tell. Here is a quick summary of the Pros/Cons of the Michelins vs mainly the Pirellis in my experience (note I also mention Goodyears).
Pros:
- Much better handling. Very little tire "wind up", which I hadn't mentioned yet about the Pirellis, but I did notice that they were worse than the Goodyears. I'd say the Michelins are as good or better than the Goodyears in this regard.
- Steering feel is even better than the Pirellis and the Goodyears (by far vs the Goodyears - although I think the ones I had were particularly bad and others may not have the problems I was having)
- Same good/smooth ride quality of the Pirellis
- Acceleration feels better than Pirellis. Not as good as Goodyears, but close
- Regen braking feels better than Pirelli, maybe not quite as good as Goodyears
- Treadlife will be in the same realm as the Pirellis (warranties are within 5000 miles of each other)
Cons:
- Efficiency is worse than the Goodyears, but maybe about the same or slightly worse than the Pirellis
- Not as quiet as the Pirellis, but still quiet and probably on par with the Goodyears (maybe slightly better)
- More expensive
In summary, I am glad I got these tires. I do wish they were as efficient as the Goodyears, but I'm starting to realize that's going to be difficult to achieve with a tire that has a much better tread life than the Goodyears, which was the original goal. Additionally, every other aspect is better than the Goodyears in my opinion. My overall ranking of the 3 tires:
1. Michelin
2. Pirelli
3. Goodyear
