I go up to the mountains a ton here but have never pulled the trigger on winter tires because otherwise I wouldn't need them in Seattle. However, we're moving to Denver next year and was planning on buying them there. Since we would actually get snow in the city and the mountains, unlike in Seattle, it seems worth it.Winter tires will not help on “icy” roads - nothing except chains works when roads are truly icy. If this is a new problem to you because you are now driving a Tesla, you just need to learn how to drive it in the snow. Tesla’s have a lot of torque and regenerative breaking, which requires a lot more care when driving in slick conditions.
As an aside, I lived in Denver and drove to the mountains in the winter regularly (in an ICE car). In 14-years I never owned a set of snow tires and never got stuck.
We sold our 2018 LR RWD to get a MYLR but took it skiing a bunch on the stock all-seasons. I grew up in New England but it was still a bit sketchy when the rear broke loose a little. We definitely got stuck in the parking lot at Stevens a few times and had to deploy the snow socks. We were reluctant to go in on buying winter tires since we had already ordered a MYLR but it took much longer than expected to get the car.I'm a huge fan of proper snow tires. I have a 2018 rear wheel drive model 3. It was pretty sketchy on the stock tires but does great with snows. I bought the 18" aero winter tire wheel set from Tesla. $2000 for OEM wheels, tires and sensors is very reasonable compared to what most dealers charge for OEM rims.
The MYLR seemed solid going up to Stevens yesterday through the snow and I figured the AWD definitely helped a ton. How much better is the RWD w/ snow tires? I'm worried that even with the traction, the lack of AWD would mean that we would still get stuck in snowy parking lots. We need a second car for around town (moving to Denver soon) and was hoping a M3 RWD w/ snow tires would work but might need to buy a used dual motor.