Yes lightweight wheels are proven to help range. It’s basically as if you’re carrying that weight and or reducing said amount of weight.
To expand on this...sprung and unsprung weight has an effect. Largely in terms of suspension characteristics which affect ride and handling more than it affects range. That being said, weight does affect mileage.
According to
Save money and fuel by driving efficiently. every 100lbs affects roughly 1% of the range. That estimate is based on a ratio of 0.33% fuel economy improvement for every 1% of vehicle weight reduced due to this study:
https://www.h3xed.com/blogmedia/Ricardo_FE_MPG_Study.pdf
But so does rolling resistance. According to
NHTSA's paper on the Pneumatic Tire "tire rolling resistance can consume up to 25% of the energy required to drive at highway speeds"
So that seems pretty important...but how important? Well luckily they also published a "
Owner Related Fuel Economy Improvements" white paper where it talks about tires affecting
"15 to 27 percent of typical fuel consumption" due to rolling resistance but states
"also contribute to aerodynamic and inertia losses" Seems like we're in the right place then!
Key takeaways:
- 5-7% of rolling resistance = 1% of fuel economy gain.
- 10% tire weight reduction = 0.1% fuel economy gain.
- 1psi reduction in 4 tires = 0.3% fuel economy loss.
- Silicia compound tires can reduce rolling resistance by up to 20%
So for that package - I'd be interested in seeing some tracked numbers if available. But based on the formulas we could probably create some expectations. Since the entire rolling package has to be taken into consideration. The entire rolling package has to be taken into account. So Pirelli tires are 35lbs front and 38lbs rear each. That puts the OEM package at 300lbs total on 4 corners. A 49lb reduction is then an impressive 16.3% reduction in rate; translating to an estimated 1.63% gain in fuel economy - or 5.72 -> 6 miles gained assuming a 351 mile LR+ Raven.
This is also ignoring that the vehicles they tested did not benefit from regenerative braking, which a lower mass will have less momentum and less regenerative braking. So the results are likely even less than that. But it's an impact, an impressive one. But if you can switch to a low rolling resistance tire and reduce 20%, you can gain 3-4% to more than double the effect. Bonus points if the new tire is now lighter too or has a treadwidth that's more narrow.
Now that isn't to say it doesn't matter. It certainly does and all of this can be used in combination for maximum effect. But rolling resistance really is key here. That means the stickiness of the tire and size of the contact patch.
**This is focused on range. Lightweight wheels are a better balance if you wish to retain handling as less rolling resistance is adverse to performance handling as
@DCGOO pointed out.
..for the price of novitec ur just not going to get that much range for it to be worth it ..
