Tesla specific Michelin tires under development.

[blanche]

I have a colleague who is also a Porsche enthusiast. He sent me this email, which I'm quoting for context. The second para relates to Tesla.

I don’t know if I mentioned this, but last weekend I was in the Lehigh Valley of PA, attending Porsche’s “Tech Tactics” - basically a series of seminars on various technical aspects of their cars.

Anyway, there was an engineer there from Michelin who gave a talk on tire technology. Amazing what goes into tires now to meet CAFE standards, safety, and so on. The most interesting takeaway is that when you see a Michelin tire of type A, that doesn’t mean very much. Several manufacturers want Michelin to see their own particular standards, e.g., N for Porsche or STAR for BMW. The generic version of A may be entirely different from the N version, which is itself completely different from the STAR version.

Tesla will soon be introducing their own standard, he said - they have already sent the specs to Michelin to begin the engineering process. The goal will be to simultaneously meet high performance and low rolling resistance, which is not an easy trade-off, as the rest of his presentation showed.

I asked if that was the case, what to do if I couldn’t find a Michelin N tire for my Cayman. His answer surprised me: “For Porsche N-spec, as much as it pains me to say this, if there is no Michelin N-spec, buy another brand of tire that is N-spec. Porsche is not kidding about N-spec.” He emphasized again at the end of the talk that it is not a good idea to put a non-N spec on a Porsche, no matter the brand.

 

[esk8mw]

I wonder if this is in anticipation of the next gen Roadster. I'm assuming the engineering process can take quite a long time.

 

[strider]

I bet it could be done in time for Model 3. We're still 20 months from out from shipping which when factoring in Tesla time means 30 months at least. Plenty of time to develop a tire.

 

[brianman]

I wonder of such a tire will have the 20k or the 30k Michelin warranty. The 30K warranty on the PSS is awesome -- for buyers. Not so sure it's a good deal for Michelin, when you put it on a Model S that gets ~11k miles on them.

 

[Max*]

I wonder of such a tire will have the 20k or the 30k Michelin warranty. The 30K warranty on the PSS is awesome -- for buyers. Not so sure it's a good deal for Michelin, when you put it on a Model S that gets ~11k miles on them.

So each new set of tires costs the buyer 1/3 of MSRP? That's a pretty sweet deal...

 

[strider]

So each new set of tires costs the buyer 1/3 of MSRP? That's a pretty sweet deal...

You can only do it every other set. The "discounted" set doesn't have the warranty. You only get the warranty on tires for which you pay full price.

 

[brianman]

So each new set of tires costs the buyer 1/3 of MSRP? That's a pretty sweet deal...

Indeed ... until they ran out of stock worldwide and I had to (temporarily?) switch back to Continentals.

- - - Updated - - -

You can only do it every other set. The "discounted" set doesn't have the warranty. You only get the warranty on tires for which you pay full price.

This wasn't the case for me. I went (1) Michelin PSS, (2) Michelin PSS, (3) Continental. Both (2) and (3) were significantly discounted. Perhaps my local Discount Tire screwed up?

 

[Evee]

To wait for these... Or just get the continentals now. Hmm.

 

[strider]

This wasn't the case for me. I went (1) Michelin PSS, (2) Michelin PSS, (3) Continental. Both (2) and (3) were significantly discounted. Perhaps my local Discount Tire screwed up?

Interesting. I have used Costco for mine and they were very clear that the warranty only applies to tires that are purchased at full price. Somebody's wrong!

 

[TaoJones]

Hopefully the new variant will have the same 45,000 mile warranty as the Primacy MXM-4. Am at 38,000 with mine and have some tread left, which frankly is pretty surprising; they've worn well this past year. For the upcoming replacement set, was going to punt with a set of the previous OEMs (Goodyear Eagle RS-A2s), since due to the ongoing ESA snafus, the current plan is to now dump the car at 50,000 miles rather than risk open-ended hassles. I figure the Goodyears will be good for 25,000 miles, anyway, which for the price (full set $518 out the door with 2-year road hazard certs and lifetime free rotations and balancing) is... interesting for a tire without a mileage warranty *twitch*.

Caveats: 1) The Goodyears are reputedly horrible in snow/ice; all-season they are not, despite the marketing. 2) I know of nobody who's gotten 45,000 miles per set with a Model S. and 3) Per Dr. Straubel's 12/2015 blog entry, there's a 3% range penalty for the Goodyears versus the Primacys @ 65mph, and that gets worse at lower speeds. So there's all of that.

The aforementioned notwithstanding, I generally prefer to put the best tires I can rationalize between me and the road, and fwiw, the Michelins have held up great. A replacement set is $1400 (mas o menos) out the door either from the SvC or from any of four other options (Discount/America's Tire, Sam's Club, Costco, Tire Rack). No complaints, all things considered. They're probably quieter than the Goodyears, and I suspect the sidewalls aren't as soft, either.

The question that comes to mind is how much these spiffy new Tesla-specific Michelins will cost; sounds like we won't know for a year or so yet.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Hopefully the new variant will have the same 45,000 mile warranty as the Primacy MXM-4. Am at 38,000 with mine and have some tread left, which frankly is pretty surprising; they've worn well this past year. For the upcoming replacement set, was going to punt with a set of the previous OEMs (Goodyear Eagle RS-A2s), since due to the ongoing ESA snafus, the current plan is to now dump the car at 50,000 miles rather than risk open-ended hassles. I figure the Goodyears will be good for 25,000 miles, anyway, which for the price (full set $518 out the door with 2-year road hazard certs and lifetime free rotations and balancing) is... interesting for a tire without a mileage warranty *twitch*.

Caveats: 1) The Goodyears are reputedly horrible in snow/ice; all-season they are not, despite the marketing. 2) I know of nobody who's gotten 45,000 miles per set with a Model S. and 3) Per Dr. Straubel's 12/2015 blog entry, there's a 3% range penalty for the Goodyears versus the Primacys @ 65mph, and that gets worse at lower speeds. So there's all of that.

The aforementioned notwithstanding, I generally prefer to put the best tires I can rationalize between me and the road, and fwiw, the Michelins have held up great. A replacement set is $1400 (mas o menos) out the door either from the SvC or from any of four other options (Discount/America's Tire, Sam's Club, Costco, Tire Rack). No complaints, all things considered. They're probably quieter than the Goodyears, and I suspect the sidewalls aren't as soft, either.

The question that comes to mind is how much these spiffy new Tesla-specific Michelins will cost; sounds like we won't know for a year or so yet.

Well, we know how Tesla will lower the price of the Model 3. $35k for the car, but the replacement tires will be $2,000 a set.