Rimz (& Tires)?

Anyone thought much yet about replacing the (relatively) boring factory rims and tires with aftermarket? For that matter, do we know the pattern and spacing yet (other than it being "5 on something")?

I would think that LRR tires are a must, as will fairly light wheels. Actually, does anyone know what the stock wheels weight yet?

mwalsh said:

Anyone thought much yet about replacing the (relatively) boring factory rims and tires with aftermarket? For that matter, do we know the pattern and spacing yet (other than it being "5 on something")?

I would think that LRR tires are a must, as will fairly light wheels. Actually, does anyone know what the stock wheels weight yet?

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Nobody picked up on my (perhaps silly) idea they should offer a yellow "Livestrong" edition... that should have black carbon fiber rimz.

LTLFTcomposite said:

Nobody picked up on my (perhaps silly) idea they should offer a yellow "Livestrong" edition... that should have black carbon fiber rimz.

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I think we did, but just chose to ignore it. :lol: Actually, I've been thinking black rims from my white one. Just hard to decide which when you don't know what's going to fit.

mwalsh said:

LTLFTcomposite said:

Nobody picked up on my (perhaps silly) idea they should offer a yellow "Livestrong" edition... that should have black carbon fiber rimz.

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I think we did, but just chose to ignore it. :lol: Actually, I've been thinking black rims from my white one. Just hard to decide which when you don't know what's going to fit.

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I'm thinking spinners. Maybe those new ones they have that don't turn, so it looks like the car is going down the road with the wheels not turning. And some purple lights underneath.

LTLFTcomposite said:

I'm thinking spinners. Maybe those new ones they have that don't turn, so it looks like the car is going down the road with the wheels not turning. And some purple lights underneath.

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If you're [putting spinners on yours, then I'm going to put spinners on mine. But MY spinners will have regen!!!
:lol:

Definitely chrome teddy bear spinners. Yes, I've seen them in real life.

In seriousness, I saw a test on Tire Rack's website where they compared the fuel economy of various eco tires as well as a "regular" tire, and the difference was pretty dramatic. If I recall correctly, the tires on the Leaf came out #2 in the test. I normally put high performance tires on my cars, but I won't be doing it on the Leaf. As for the rims, I kinda like them, and nobody is going to steal the factory ones so I won't have to mess with wheel locks or worry about all the money I wasted on a set of rims.

Bicster said:

If I recall correctly, the tires on the Leaf came out #2 in the test.

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I didn't know we knew that. What are they?

I believe they are Bridgestone Ecopia 205/55R16, but I just realized there are several in the Ecopia series. They may be EP20 or something else.

EP20: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Ecopia+EP20

Maybe someone can tell from this image:

http://www.allcarselectric.com/image/100300654_2011-nissan-leaf-prototype

Edit: To me this doesn't look like the EP20 or the EP100; it may be a new model for this car. :roll:

Edit 2: Another bad photo: http://www.smidgeindustriesltd.com/leaf/imgs/IMG_0010.JPG

Well the EP100 is the only one currently available in that size, but you can see "EP100" quite easily on the tire pictures I've seen. Maybe it's a new model?

mwalsh said:

Well the EP100 is the only one currently available in that size, but you can see "EP100" quite easily on the tire pictures I've seen. Maybe it's a new model?

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It's probably the EP100, then. Tread patterns do vary by size.

For some reason I thought the tire was actually specified by Nissan somewhere, but I must have imagined it. Just because we've seen Ecopias on the tour car doesn't mean production cars will get them.

The stock tires are Ecopia EP422. Some really nice high-res pictures starting to show up on the Nissan website. Same link as the videos in the "sound" thread.



Edit: I just went back to Tire Rack....they have that tire listed, just not in that size.

The stock wheels are rather bland - something really light would be nice.

But more than that, I'd like to see some lowering springs - bring up the spring rate a bit and lower the car - should reduce drag by a little bit and increase range and hopefully improve handling.

I'm really surprised they are putting alloy wheels on the base model, and half expect that to change when the final stats are announced. Usually alloy wheels vs steel wheels with plastic wheel covers is a differentiator between trim lines.

Yeah, but there's no way you'd get away with selling a $33k car with steel wheels. Just about all cars 2/3rds of the price come with alloy wheels standard.

drees said:

Yeah, but there's no way you'd get away with selling a $33k car with steel wheels. Just about all cars 2/3rds of the price come with alloy wheels standard.

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How about a $25k car ?

evnow said:

How about a $25k car ?

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I don't know of any $25k cars that come stock with steel wheels. I do see that the cheapest Accord ($21k) is available with steel wheels. Looks like the base Camry for about the same is, too. Everything else has alloys that I can find.

Alloy wheels, while more expensive, are lighter - they are important on a vehicle that is trying to maximize efficiency.

Change the wheels and tires and expect to take a hit on range. Nissan have spent a heck of a lot of time on tire evaluation and what they have ended up with is the result of a huge amount of research.

I know other people with EVs who have changed the tires for a different make and found a 10-15% reduction in range as a result.

MikeBoxwell said:

Change the wheels and tires....

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Tyres, Michael. Tyres.

mwalsh said:

MikeBoxwell said:

Change the wheels and tires....

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Tyres, Michael. Tyres.

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Ah yes. England and the United States are two countries divided by a common language! It's a real nightmare when writing books that are sold in both countries - you spend weeks making sure you use words that work in both countries and avoiding words with different spellings. So tires/tyres become 'black round squishy rubbery things fitted to wheels' and petrol/gasoline becomes 'nasty ikky oily stuff you pour into a fuel tank'.

However, I think I've cracked it. My next book is going to be written in Latin and readers can translate it themselves.