Tesla's reason for not adding spare tires, doesn't make sense.

[avs007]

BMW covers it with fix a flat and runflat tires. Most don't have spare tires. Maybe some suv models as an option.
Not familar with Merc but they usually follow the other Germans.

I hate runflat tires. For starters, they are insanely expensive. I had a blowout when I hit a misaligned steel plate at low speed. It ruptured the bead. A replacement runflat from Discount Tire was > $500 for one tire. When I did research, I found that runflats are actually more susceptible to blowouts than non-runflats on the same car... If you look at the BMW boards, there are numerous complaints on this very issue. I was only going like 10mph when I hit that steel plate when my bead ruptured. Luckily I got the city to pay for it, but they told me I was the only person that had a blowout there. (I sent them pictures of the steelplate, and they confirmed it was installed incorrectly, so I told them they probably didn't have anyone with an OEM runflat run over it.... Anyways, I ended up dismounting all my runflats, and replaced them all with non runflats.

 

[yblaser]

thank unions - both employee and business ones

Hard core competition is the only one on guard of consumer experience

This IS a result of hard core competition. The number one driver to the average consumer is price leading to bottom of the barrel offerings. Those who want a better experience can purchase a premium product but most don't because they want the cheapest "acceptable" option that they will then complain about not being good enough.

 

[Eto Demerzel]

I hate runflat tires. For starters, they are insanely expensive. I had a blowout when I hit a misaligned steel plate at low speed. It ruptured the bead. A replacement runflat from Discount Tire was > $500 for one tire. When I did research, I found that runflats are actually more susceptible to blowouts than non-runflats on the same car... If you look at the BMW boards, there are numerous complaints on this very issue. I was only going like 10mph when I hit that steel plate when my bead ruptured. Luckily I got the city to pay for it, but they told me I was the only person that had a blowout there. (I sent them pictures of the steelplate, and they confirmed it was installed incorrectly, so I told them they probably didn't have anyone with an OEM runflat run over it.... Anyways, I ended up dismounting all my runflats, and replaced them all with non runflats.

yeah runflats suck. they ride bad too.

 

[Konicom04]

This IS a result of hard core competition. The number one driver to the average consumer is price leading to bottom of the barrel offerings. Those who want a better experience can purchase a premium product but most don't because they want the cheapest "acceptable" option that they will then complain about not being good enough.

One can also say, that healthy competition for market share will certainly produce better offering at a lower price.
We don't really have that today. Companies ( particularly airlines) merge - or group - to artificially inflate prices / deflate option offering to consumer

 

[laservet]

I really wished Tesla put spare tires on their vehicles. My Mercedes has a very compact space saving and light spare. The spare tires are vacuumed and the side walls collapse and fold inwards, the outside tires then compressed straight into the wheels taking very little space. It is also light. Mercedes even provides white gloves, which goes with the tires. You just pump the spare with the provided pump before installing. Light space saving tires exist, Tesla could add this type of light and space saving tires, vs customers having to cut areas of the trunk to add bulky spares.

I get that only a small percentage of people get flat tires and it is supposedly heavy, therefore Tesla omits it, but it is so much quicker to replace a flat, 15 min, vs waiting for hours for the service van to fix your flat or drag you to the nearest service center. It’s like saying a small percentage of our vehicles get into accidents so we just omit airbags. If you ever get a flat, you want a spare and light space saving spares now exist and I’m sure with Tesla’s smart engineering team they can design an even more compact and lighter spare.

Mercedes E class, among others, does not come with a spare tire. They don't want to take the hit on gas mileage or interior space.

My BMW came with runflats and no spare. Out of four flat tires I had, two were not driveable because a large portion of the sidewall blew out, so they really weren't run flats. $500 each.

 

[gflar]

Mercedes E class, among others, does not come with a spare tire. They don't want to take the hit on gas mileage or interior space.

No customer has ever said the spare is taking too much space or the spare is wasting gas mileage.

It’s a recent phenomena that customers have been praising their vehicles for not having spares.

 

[Yelobird]

It’s the new norm. 5 pages of debate won’t change anything. It’s not a Tesla thing, it’s the standard. They removed cigarette lighters also, should I start a thread or simply buy a lighter?

 

[CyberGus]

It’s the new norm. 5 pages of debate won’t change anything. It’s not a Tesla thing, it’s the standard. They removed cigarette lighters also, should I start a thread or simply buy a lighter?

vape

 

[Konicom04]

Well, one anyway: cost savings.

Yup, that’s been established. But “valuable” is open to interpretation. The comfort of carrying around a spare is very “valuable” to some.

Er, not really. And certainly not ”promptly” by any reasonable definition. Change your own tire using the spare? Let’s call it 15 minutes of trip delay. Any other option? Hours of delay at best.

I’m not familiar with any Tesla solution for fixing a tire that I’d call efficient or convenient for me as a customer. Perhaps AA or Tesla in the UK offer more than in the US, but using Tesla or AAA here for a flat tire is a tow job to somewhere; there is no on-site plug repairs, no tire exchange unless you have your own spare. Hardly convenient at all.

Yes, and that helps assuming that the driver actually watches this. But this only warns of slow leaks over time, or less usefully, a bad TPMS sensor. It does let you know if something more catastrophic has occurred but by then you’ll have other indicators. TPMS is a nice feature, works well, though is not a panacea for all tire issues.

I think you mean cost cutting, but I could be wrong. Regardless, Tesla and other manufacturers removal of spares and a fit for purpose place to mount them saves them a lot of costs and they market that cost cutting as beneficial for space and weight savings. A great argument to be sure…until you have a flat tire. I pray for any tire failure to be in front of a Discount Tire (US retailer) store as anything else will be a lengthy annoyance.

All valid points,
However - as I mentioned before - recent societal trends, leading to general population's inability ( or will ) to identify / troubleshoot simple defects, and get their hands dirty to address them is profound.
I can pretty much assure you that consumers buying a GM large SUV ( just an example) that natively comes with a spare will never change the tire when they get a flat, but rather call AAA to do it for them.

 

[Jcull01]

In the last seven years or so, I've purchased a number of new vehicles, and not a single one of them had a spare tire; instead, it was just a repair kit. The absence of a spare tire in autos seems to be rather commonplace.

 

[SalisburySam]

All valid points,
However - as I mentioned before - recent societal trends, leading to general population's inability ( or will ) to identify / troubleshoot simple defects, and get their hands dirty to address them is profound.

Yes, this. Reminds me of the 2006 movie Idiocracy and we seem to be well on our way.

I can pretty much assure you that consumers buying a GM large SUV ( just an example) that natively comes with a spare will never change the tire when they get a flat, but rather call AAA to do it for them.

Absolutely agree, and while I changed my own tires many years ago, I would not do so today. If I can limp to a tire store, that would be my first choice. If not possible, AAA mounting a spare assuming I carried one is next best. A very distant third choice is the tow job. So without a spare, you go from possibly limping directly to towing.

 

[zoomer0056]

Tesla's decision not to include spare tires in its vehicles is based on several factors. While spare tires can be useful in the case of a flat tire, they also add weight and take up valuable space in the vehicle. Tesla aims to optimize the design and efficiency of their cars, including maximizing cargo space. In the event of a flat tire, Tesla provides roadside assistance and a mobile service network to address such issues promptly. Their focus is on providing efficient and convenient solutions for customers without the need for spare tires. Additionally, Tesla vehicles are equipped with tire pressure monitoring systems that can help alert drivers to potential tire issues before they become major problems. While some customers may prefer having spare tires, Tesla has made a strategic decision to prioritize other aspects of their vehicle design and maintenance approach.

Did Arti write this?

 

[Pianewman]

Did Arti write this?

Nope. It's just the enormous echo chamber this thread has created, repeating the same info over and over...

 

[gtae07]

However - as I mentioned before - recent societal trends, leading to general population's inability ( or will ) to identify / troubleshoot simple defects, and get their hands dirty to address them is profound.

That's just depressing

I guess I take a few things for granted about how I was raised... Dad did all the maintenance on our cars and I helped him; I was rotating tires and changing oil on the family vehicles well before I could drive. We built some of our own furniture, fixed stuff around the house, built an airplane together... only now since Dad's retired are my parents starting to offload this sort of work to others. I still do all my own work since it's cheaper and 95% of the time I'll have it done sooner (not necessarily faster in terms of hours worked, but an earlier absolute completion date/time) than hiring it out.

I understand why manufacturers leave out spares but I wish they'd at least leave a reasonable space for one, that anyone not wanting a spare could use for storage.

 

[CyberGus]

Real men don't need spares

 

[Konicom04]

Real men don't need spares

Things that happen in Russia

 

[GNFO]

Thanks for the confirmation. I learned something from this thread. Didn't know there were foam liners in these bad boys. So If switching to another brand of tires, or not going the Tesla route, are you guys just leaving out the foam and dealing with the extra road noise or peeling and transferring the foam?

Yeah, my wife's BMW f30 has no spare either. One nice thing about tire plugs is that you really don't need to jack it up or take off the wheel. If you have it pinpointed, you can roll the car enough to expose the area and plug it then and there, even if you might have to lay on the ground. Done it before, although on a higher vehicle. Wouldn't it be nice if these Teslas came with a built in air compressor?

The foam isn't something added. They are a feature built in to the OEM tires by the tire company, not a Tesla add-on, and aren't meant to be "transferred". I've had a Discount Tires refuse to patch a nail in one of mine because they were told they couldn't because of that foam. I wound up doing the plug myself with a kit and the tire did just fine until it was time to replace all of them. Have gone on to do the same with my wife's on two different tires (too much construction debris on roads these days!) Since then, I have put different tires (Pirelli Scorpions) on my wife's car that don't have the foam. That wasn't the reason for picking the tire, they just had better life and all-season tread. They are a little noisier, but only if you're thinking about it.

Regarding the original topic, I wasn't crazy about not having a spare when I bought my first Tesla, but I thought about it and had to agree that in 38 years of driving, I've had to change a tire maybe twice, and even then it wouldn't have killed me to wait for roadside assistance. Spares made more sense back when tires failed more often, or before TPMS alerted you early on to a leak, and more to the point they made sense before everyone had a cell phone to call for help. Kneeling on the ground with a lug wrench next to a road with distracted drivers is not to be taken lightly. Sure there's some pride in saying you can do it (and I've taught both my daughters how to change a tire), but there are safer alternatives these days. If you know you are one of those people who travel to an edge case location (no cell reception, no traffic, no roadside service anywhere), then by all means it makes sense to invest in one of the aftermarket solutions. It's just not that common.

 

[ewoodrick]

No customer has ever said the spare is taking too much space or the spare is wasting gas mileage.

It’s a recent phenomena that customers have been praising their vehicles for not having spares.

I have.

 

[gflar]

I still don’t get the efficiency and space improvement argument. Model Y weights around 4,400 lbs, spare tire maybe 30 lbs, jack and wench maybe 10 lbs. that is less than 1% at most more weight. How much reduction in efficiency is 1%? Likely not noticeable.

I have never meet someone who took off their spare to make room in the trunk. Maybe some have, but probably very few. Meaning customers never requested more room in replacement for a spare.

Also if you cannot chance spare due to safety or health issues, you can just have aaa or Tesla mobile service change it for you. Still quicker than dragging your vehicle to a service center and waiting hours for a repair.

Increase in efficiency and trunk space is just marketing successfully convincing everyone it is needed, but if you think about it. Makes no sense.

 

[Iron]

The foam isn't something added. They are a feature built in to the OEM tires by the tire company, not a Tesla add-on, and aren't meant to be "transferred". I've had a Discount Tires refuse to patch a nail in one of mine because they were told they couldn't because of that foam. I wound up doing the plug myself with a kit and the tire did just fine until it was time to replace all of them. Have gone on to do the same with my wife's on two different tires (too much construction debris on roads these days!) Since then, I have put different tires (Pirelli Scorpions) on my wife's car that don't have the foam. That wasn't the reason for picking the tire, they just had better life and all-season tread. They are a little noisier, but only if you're thinking about it.

Regarding the original topic, I wasn't crazy about not having a spare when I bought my first Tesla, but I thought about it and had to agree that in 38 years of driving, I've had to change a tire maybe twice, and even then it wouldn't have killed me to wait for roadside assistance. Spares made more sense back when tires failed more often, or before TPMS alerted you early on to a leak, and more to the point they made sense before everyone had a cell phone to call for help. Kneeling on the ground with a lug wrench next to a road with distracted drivers is not to be taken lightly. Sure there's some pride in saying you can do it (and I've taught both my daughters how to change a tire), but there are safer alternatives these days. If you know you are one of those people who travel to an edge case location (no cell reception, no traffic, no roadside service anywhere), then by all means it makes sense to invest in one of the aftermarket solutions. It's just not that common.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion with the foam. In all my years, I'd never head of it before. I google it and "Contisilent" is one variation. I guess that's what we're getting with the Gemini wheels. I probably won't go with Continentals once these were out though, they wear out super fast , based on my past experience.

I completely agree with your views regarding spare tires. Especially not taking the danger of changing spare tires on the side of the road lightly. I'm very much the DIY type but there are many places I reconsider doing it myself, even with a cop directing traffic around me. I've seen too many videos of even the cops having to run when an inattentive driver is about to cream their vehicles. Sadly some have died. That same cell phone that makes getting a flat less of an ordeal in these times, also makes changing one yourself a much more dangerous proposition.