Recommended replacement tire

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newmanji

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
Messages
7
So many topics in this forum so I could not find what I am looking for. My Leaf has about 26,000 miles and my tires are almost worn out. These are the stock Bridgestone Ecopia tires so I do not want to replace them with the same type. My dealer says they can match pricing on the following 4 tires:

Goodyear eagle LS BW
Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 bw
Bridgestone turanza EL400-02 BW
Michelin Defender GEN X BSW

The Ecopia's are supposed to give a longer range than most tires so I am also concerned about reduced range on the others. Does anyone have experience with the above tires or have any better recommendations of their own considering range and life?
 
I went with Michelin Premeir A/S's and I am pretty happy. I took a decent hit initally (~10%), but about almost 2000 miles I get almost the same efficiency as with my bald Ecopias on warmer days. I will have to see when summer comes around if I am fully back or not (I swapped them out in fall, and don't have a good reference point). The ride is a little better, but I really noticed the wet road traction is vastly improved on corners (much less under steer on corners). No regrets.
 
I use the Eagle L/S tires. They were the cheapest, but I've had no problems and only a tiny range reduction from the Ecopias. They might not be the best in torrential rain, from the reviews I read.
 
newmanji said:
So many topics in this forum so I could not find what I am looking for. My Leaf has about 26,000 miles and my tires are almost worn out. These are the stock Bridgestone Ecopia tires so I do not want to replace them with the same type. ...

FWIW, there seems to be some consensus that if you buy Ecopia replacement tires, they will provide better tread-wear than the OEM stock tires.
 
After my experience with the stock Ecopia's and then replacement MXV4's, I would probably go back to the Ecopia's if I had to. They are lousy tires, but nothing beats them as far as energy efficiency. MXV4 gives a reasonable balance between wear, performance, and energy efficiency- but it's a jack of all trades, master of none. I sort of want to see how the LEAF handles high performance summer tires.
 
kubel said:
After my experience with the stock Ecopia's and then replacement MXV4's, I would probably go back to the Ecopia's if I had to. They are lousy tires, but nothing beats them as far as energy efficiency.

I have exactly the same thought. After 10,000+ miles, the very best I can manage on these Michelins is 4.2, usually 4.0, when I regularly got 4.5 or more on the Ecopias. With 25% degradation on my battery, I need every electron I can get.
 
kubel said:
After my experience with the stock Ecopia's and then replacement MXV4's, I would probably go back to the Ecopia's if I had to. They are lousy tires, but nothing beats them as far as energy efficiency. MXV4 gives a reasonable balance between wear, performance, and energy efficiency- but it's a jack of all trades, master of none. I sort of want to see how the LEAF handles high performance summer tires.

I also replaced my Ecopias with the MXV4's and love the handling aspects but they aren't as efficient. My third pair of tires are waiting in the garage. I bought the Michelin Energy Savers that are used on newer Leaf models. They don't make the All Season version for 16" wheels, so I bought the summer tires. I run studs this time of year anyway due to black ice and snow.
 
Nubo said:
newmanji said:
So many topics in this forum so I could not find what I am looking for. My Leaf has about 26,000 miles and my tires are almost worn out. These are the stock Bridgestone Ecopia tires so I do not want to replace them with the same type. ...

FWIW, there seems to be some consensus that if you buy Ecopia replacement tires, they will provide better tread-wear than the OEM stock tires.

The non OEM is a better tire in general. The retail Ecopia is a actually a decent LRR tire and THE most efficient tire for the LEAF, anyone suggestion other tires are comparable on efficiency are in efficiency denial, this is well documented. All the Michelins take an efficiency hit regardless of the tire, some more significant.
 
I recently replaced my original tires with Nokian WR-G3 tires. These are true LRR tires and I've not noticed any range loss. These are great all weather tires but are a bit more expensive than the Ecopias. I've been using WR-G2s on my Prius too for years now and find them to be a good year round tire for the northeast. Not on your list though. The OP didn't say their location.
 
EVDRIVER said:
Nubo said:
newmanji said:
So many topics in this forum so I could not find what I am looking for. My Leaf has about 26,000 miles and my tires are almost worn out. These are the stock Bridgestone Ecopia tires so I do not want to replace them with the same type. ...

FWIW, there seems to be some consensus that if you buy Ecopia replacement tires, they will provide better tread-wear than the OEM stock tires.

The non OEM is a better tire in general. The retail Ecopia is a actually a decent LRR tire and THE most efficient tire for the LEAF, anyone suggestion other tires are comparable on efficiency are in efficiency denial, this is well documented. All the Michelins take an efficiency hit regardless of the tire, some more significant.
On top of all that, the Ecopias are the cheapest tires available for the LEAF at Costco (by about $50/set, IIRC).

OTOH, I'm at 23,000 miles and it appears I still have over half of the life remaining on the set that came with the car. Here's hoping...
 
Thanks everyone for the good suggestions. Because range is the most important item for me I will go with the Ecopia's again. I am hoping like stated in some of the posts that I will get more mileage out of the non-OEM Ecopias.
 
I realize this is a rather old thread but think it warrants updating as I was looking to find this myself with what is currently available and repeated searches didn't give effective results. I just got my 2014 Leaf August 31 and really like it. :) Tires were a problem as it had 2 uneven and nearly bald Ecopia EP422 and 2 generic Atlas sports tires. Costco recommended Michelin X-Tour A/S HT as the best choice over Ecopia EP422 or EP422 Plus. While I expected a drop from everything I read here but it is a very large drop going from around 4.7M/kWh and up to around 3.8 to 4.1 after 250 miles. I even contacted Michelin who said they recommend a break in on the X-Tour of 200-500 miles before normal efficiency. Does anyone have any experience with the X-Tour? They have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee so want to do everything possible to make sure I have the most efficient tires without having a huge cost to replace is they are not.
 
I can't speak to the X-Tours directly but but I did switch to Defenders from the stock Michelins. Initially I lost 15% range but after about 8000 miles the loss is down to about 6% and keeps improving. These tires are rated for 90,000 miles took their time breaking in. The handling is much improved especially in the rain.
 
Thank you very much for responding so quickly! after 300 miles (right in the 200-500 range stated by Michelin), higher inflation pressure, and exact same route yielded no improvement it looks like I'll be exchanging these for Ecopia EP422 Plus. Thank you again! This is a very useful and informative group. :)
 
Last month I went from very worn OEM Ecopias to a new set of Ecopia Plus and I seem to have lost a solid 0.5 mile per kWh. I have not rammed the pressure up to the full 44 PSI yet, but they are at almost exactly what my old set was inflated to for most of the summer (41 PSI). I attribute the difference to a mix of extra tread weight and loss of suppleness with the thicker tread.

So, I wonder if you will see a big difference between the Michelins and the Bridgestones. It *would* be an interesting experiment to compare both as new tires instead of a worn set vs. a new set.
 
Losing only 0.5M/kWh would be awesome compared to the 1+ I've lots after trying to break them in. And that was only with 2 worn Ecopia's with the other not even being eco tires at all but sport tires which is why this continued drop is so troubling. I'll keep an eye on the difference once I get these exchanged with Ecopia plus ones. It's sounding like there should sound be a noticeable improvement right out of the gate. I'll be sure to post what happens to contribute to the community knowledge.

Update: Had the X-Tour replaces with Ecopia Plus and right away shot up to 4.4 Miles / kWh without any break in time. Costco even under inflated the tires even lower than the low pressure Nissan specified putting 36 F 34 R. Upped inflation to 42 both and got 4.7 on last trip with only about 90 miles on the tires. From this it seems the X-Tour are a complete failure for an electric car or any application were efficiency is of high importance.
 
I replaced the tires on my 2012 at 32K (lease return bought at auction) on 12/1/2015. I installed Pirelli P7 205/55/R16. All my driving is in town. I will take the car in to have the tires checked and rotated next month when the car turns over to 43K. I've put 11K on the them. Had a couple of flats and one tire was replaced under warranty. I'm satisfied with these.
 
This person raves about the Nokian WR G3 205 55/16 94X:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=24070&p=510684#p510684

Anyone else use those tires?
 
I'm running Michelin Defenders now and it's taken 8000 miles to break them in. When I started, I went from 3.8 with the OEM's to 3.3 with the Defenders. At this point I'm back up to 3.7. Haven't made up all the difference but the Defenders are much better overall than the OEM Michelin's. I did go up to 225r50/17 from 215r50/17 since I wanted the 90000 mi warranty and the Defender didn't come in a 215 width.
 
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