The Premier A/S seem to be a good all around choice and have gotten a number of good reviews. Any new tire will cut your range a bit so you should/may find your range going back up as the tire is broken in. I'm mostly interested in how quiet the ride is and how they work in rain.
Review: Michelin Premier A/S
Went to Costco for the second time in two months to get new shoes for my car. Previously gotten the same tires for my Volt and love it, decided to take advantage of the sale again. Went with 195/55/15 all around, 195/50/15 isn't available for the fronts. Costco gave me the usual disclaimers and installed it without fuss. The new tires as expected sucked a bit more juice: 3.9kW vs. 3.5kW for a 23 mile commute but I expect the efficiency to return after a while like my Volt did.
The ride is quieter, the handling is much better and I feel more planted for my back country road commute. Will see how well it holds up in the winter snow.
The ride is quieter, the handling is much better and I feel more planted for my back country road commute. Will see how well it holds up in the winter snow.
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Why would you put the incorrect size tire on your Spark? Your range is not accurate by any means now...
If you haven't already, double-check your tire pressures. Lower pressure can give a more pleasant ride, but would cut into range.Went to Costco for the second time in two months to get new shoes for my car. Previously gotten the same tires for my Volt and love it, decided to take advantage of the sale again. Went with 195/55/15 all around, 195/50/15 isn't available for the fronts. Costco gave me the usual disclaimers and installed it without fuss. The new tires as expected sucked a bit more juice: 3.9kW vs. 3.5kW for a 23 mile commute but I expect the efficiency to return after a while like my Volt did.
The ride is quieter, the handling is much better and I feel more planted for my back country road commute. Will see how well it holds up in the winter snow.
What do you mean by 'range'?Why would you put the incorrect size tire on your Spark? Your range is not accurate by any means now...
The guessometer? >> That is always changing anyway. It's an estimate.
Speedometer error? >> Mine has stock tires up front and I always read +1 MPH compared to the GPS.
Actual range of the battery pack? >> Who uses that? Reaching the limit is not fun. It means a tow job.
So what if the "range in not accurate now"? It might be 79 miles instead of the EPA 82 miles, IF you measured accurately.
How would you go about measuring it accurately?
Um, I'm still driving the same distance to work (this is a commuter car only, I drive the Volt for other trips), so the "range" doesn't really change, but indeed I'm using a bit more juice to travel the same exact distance. Delta between the two tires is small enough I'm not sweating it (not like I'm going DUBS on it).Why would you put the incorrect size tire on your Spark? Your range is not accurate by any means now...
https://tiresize.com/comparison/
It appears I'm 1.8% down on the revs/mile, so when my speedo says 50MPH, I'm actually going 50.9MPH. Not a big deal, my commute is all back country roads and I rarely get above 50MPH anyway.
My Volt performed well with the Premier AS in the recent rains, so I expect similar performance on the Spark.
Update, my commute usage is down to 3.5kW again, so the tires are LRR and provides way better grip. It was raining dogs and cats too this morning.
Wow. 6.5 miles per kwh!!
Our Leaf only manages about 3.9, but it came with snow tires. Looking forward to getting some A/S on it this spring. Thanks for the reviews.
Our Leaf only manages about 3.9, but it came with snow tires. Looking forward to getting some A/S on it this spring. Thanks for the reviews.
I don't see where this claim came from,,, but as we all know,,,, to achieve 6.5 miles/kWh requires one thing, and that is go SLOW.Wow. 6.5 miles per kwh!!
.......
Real SLOW, or only go down hill. That works too.
Yeah... I thought about that after I posted it. I made the (probably poor) assumption that the OP used 3.5kwh to go the 23 miles. He actually said his usage dropped to 3.5kw, so that doesn't make sense if he was reporting an improvement in efficiency.I don't see where this claim came from,,, but as we all know,,,, to achieve 6.5 miles/kWh requires one thing, and that is go SLOW.
Real SLOW, or only go down hill. That works too.
I don't think it was a poor assumption; that's what I read as well. Driving and weather conditions have a lot to do with individual energy usage, so 6.5 miles per kWh could be perfectly reasonable for him/her. I'm averaging 4.9 miles per kWh in my Volt, so I'm sure a Spark EV owner with a similar commute in my area would be seeing very close to that 6.5 miles per kWh, if not more. Some of the Los Angeles Spark owners could chime in on that.Yeah... I thought about that after I posted it. I made the (probably poor) assumption that the OP used 3.5kwh to go the 23 miles. He actually said his usage dropped to 3.5kw, so that doesn't make sense if he was reporting an improvement in efficiency.
My commute is back country roads with a lot of up & down hills with posted speed limit of between 25MPH to 45MPH, drive behind lots of semis and trucks, and I coast/neutral slide a lot - doesn't give the same kind of satisfaction as when I was driving my S2000 or Cayman S, but it's pretty busy work. But yeah you can absolutely squeeze hard on the juice!
I've recently been flooring it (jumped from 3.x Kw to 5kW) because the local Royal Farms is offering 3-months free use of their DCFC so I got at lunch to fill her up before going home.
I've recently been flooring it (jumped from 3.x Kw to 5kW) because the local Royal Farms is offering 3-months free use of their DCFC so I got at lunch to fill her up before going home.
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