aftermarket wheelson the RAV4 EV

[robertantal]

I can tell you the difference, with my Volks G2 Forged 20", it is 5 lbs lighter than OEM wheels, but wider tires are heavier, so net weight of my 20" wheel+tire is about the same as OEM.

Front: 235/45-20
Rear: 275/40-20

However, I am losing range due to wider tire friction and wind resistance. Now think about this, hybrid and EV they are inefficient when you accelerate, you gain MPG by gliding/cruising. The Rav4 EV got so much power, acceleration with the wider wheels would have minimum impact vs. glide/cruise impact. The easier it can glide/cruise the less energy it uses.

My car with the bigger wheels I notice big difference when I cruise, the car slows down much quicker than before. This means that the more freeway (high speed), the more you are going to lose in range. On the other hand, if you drive mostly local and stop/go traffic, wider tires would have minimum impact.

Give you an example, with my OEM wheels, I can easily drive 110 miles (normal/single charge). Now with my 20" wheels, I can barely make 100 miles (normal/single charge). 80% freeway, same route to work.

That is right! After changing the wheels to 20's on the extended charge I'm getting 86 miles of range. I do also noticed that in real word I'm getting a bit more than that.

 

[robertantal]

Here are some 22" wheels on the gas version. It may l;ook ok on the EV version to!

 

[robertantal]

I'm personally a fan of the concave rims, they give the car a more fluent line.

 

[jimbo69ny]

Has anyone found a set of wheels and tires that are lighter over than the stock set up? Tirerack has a set of Enkei Racing RPF1 17's that are only 14.6lbs each.

How much do the stock wheels weigh?
How much does the stock wheels weigh with tires?
How wide are the stock tires?

If you can stay under these numbers in theory you could get MORE range.

Unfortunately I live in Central NY and we get winter for 6 months a year. I am going to need some snow tires. Now I realize that snow tires will reduce my range but if I get a set of lightweight wheels and put snows on it maybe I wont experience as much of a loss.

 

[jimbo69ny]

I just did some google searching and it looks like the wheels on the EV are the same as the ICE limited. I am new to the EV so forgive me if this is old news.

On an ICE forum they said the 17" limited wheels weighed 23 lbs 6 oz each. With stock tires someone said it was 51 lbs. I could be wrong but with a pair of lightweight wheels from tirerack you could save quite a bit of weight.....

Again, assuming its the same wheel as the ICE limited, its a 17x7" wheel. The same width as the Enkei Racing RPF1's which are the lightest wheels tirerack offers for the Rav4.
The Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires are 26 lbs each.
The Bridgstone Ecopia EP422 tires are 24 lbs each.
There are plenty more options but I know those are two popular tires.

So with Enkei Racing RPF1's and Bridgstone Ecopia EP422 your total would be 47lbs, 6 oz roughly.
If the stock set up is 51 lbs you'd be saving about 4 lbs 6 oz.

I was hoping there would be more of a weight savings....

 

[pchilds]

The OEM Nissan Juke wheels fit the RAV4 EV, don't know about the weight but they look much better.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The OEM Nissan Juke wheels fit the RAV4 EV, don't know about the weight but they look much better.

Can you post a pic?

 

[pchilds]

Didn't get pictures, it was just a test. I still have the 215/45-17 Michelins on the Juke wheels.

 

[jimbo69ny]

Has anyone with a blue Rav put aftermarket wheels on their car? I would really like to see photos if you have!

I suspect with only 2000ish out there on the road that a very small percentage of people have added wheels.

 

[jimbo69ny]

I'm looking into this again. I just weighed my stock wheels and tires, they are 45.6lbs.

The 16" Enkei RPF1's 17x7" are 14.6lbs
Ecopia EP422 are 25lbs
Champion Fuel Fighter tires are 25lbs

That would be 39.6lbs total, per wheel. A savings of only 6lbs per wheel.

I'm not sure that it would be worth the investment. I'm still curious as to if anyone has gone with the RPF1's or any other lightweight wheel. I'm wondering what they experienced when it comes to range.

 

[ddoxey]

I'm looking into this again. I just weighed my stock wheels and tires, they are 45.6lbs.

The 16" Enkei RPF1's 17x7" are 14.6lbs
Ecopia EP422 are 25lbs
Champion Fuel Fighter tires are 25lbs

That would be 39.6lbs total, per wheel. A savings of only 6lbs per wheel.

I'm not sure that it would be worth the investment. I'm still curious as to if anyone has gone with the RPF1's or any other lightweight wheel. I'm wondering what they experienced when it comes to range.

I would expect to see an easily measurable improvement in efficiency with a 6lb per wheel weight reduction.

In my Prius days, I noticed a drop from 43 to 37 MPG (about 13% decrease) when I increased my wheel weight by 6.5lb.

 

[jimbo69ny]

i could also lose 24lbs myself... that would probably help too.

 

[n3ckf]

i could also lose 24lbs myself... that would probably help too.

I've lost 53 lbs. since i bought my Rav4EV but it hasnt helped range a noticable amount

 

[swogee]

I am curious if the TRD wheels that were used on the RAV4 EV for the Pikes Peak run were any lighter than stock ones. It appears as though they were running lower profile tires which might lower the weight but at the expense of changing the effective gearing (resulting in faster acceleration times and reduced range). If I had extra money I would modify my RAV4 EV to improve it's handling with the coil over shocks, the slight lowering, and the larger brakes. The wheels and tires they used would improve handling but at the expense of reduced range.

http://www.trdusa.com/rav4.html

 

[ddoxey]

For the record, the OEM Rav4 EV wheels are 23.2lbs each.

 

[ddoxey]

Here's a pretty good article.

https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=108

It has empirical data and everything.

Taking it a little further ...

changes in rotating wheel mass:
38.5 lb to 48.5 lb
+10.0 lb => +25.97%

impact on fuel economy:
22.8 mpg to 21.1 mpg
-1.7 mpg => -7.46%

Browsing some tire & wheel dealer sites it looks like I might be able to shed around 4 or 5 lbs per wheel. Given the 25:7 ratio above, a 9% reduction in weight could result in around a 2.5% increase in range.

I think I'll keep my money for now.

 

[ddoxey]

Original wheel weighs 23.2 lbs.