Studded Snow Tires… The Ultimate Range Destroyer

[doug401]

Snow is in the forecast with temps in the 20's next week. I put my favorite snow and ice eating machines on today, Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7's.
http://www.pbase.com/doug401/image/153589510
http://www.pbase.com/doug401/image/153589520
Range, handling, quiet ride… kiss it goodbye. Although the Hakka's are considered the "quiet" studded tire because of their square stud, and they are rated "low rolling resistance", it just doesn't translate to EV very well. I ran Hakka 5's on my old Prius's, then the Hakka 7's on my Leaf's. So hear we go again. I think the Rav4EV will be by far the best of the 3 in snow.

 

[SeattleRav4]

I have not tried them on the Rav but I have used studless snow tires on my Solara (Camry) quite successfully. They do not seem to hurt the milelage much, but I didn't actually track the difference.
No, they do not do everything that studs do but under some ice conditions I found them to be actually better.

Personally I plan to just have a set of chains in case.

 

[DevinL]

Hey Doug - how was your experience with the RAV4 EV in the snow? How much range did the snow tires take off?

I think my biggest concern with the RAV in the snow would be the low ground clearance and hitting something with the battery pack - any major issues there?

 

[doug401]

Talking snow tires in July? Ok....
While the big snows never materialized, I still mounted and dismounted them 3 times over the winter. My guess is about 3-5% range loss due to tires alone. Of course that is in addition to the cumulative effects of Winter battery draining facts.

Colder battery holds less charge, capacity
Dense cold air, drag co-efficient
Wet or snowy roads, rolling resistance
Heater usage, consumption
More wipers, defroster, and lights, consumption
Tires pressures lower due to cold, rolling resistance

Overall, right now I'm getting 3.4 m/k.... In December, with studs on, as low as 2.5

As far as handling, better than thought, but still poor.

 

[mikegerard]

Hey Doug - how was your experience with the RAV4 EV in the snow? How much range did the snow tires take off?

I think my biggest concern with the RAV in the snow would be the low ground clearance and hitting something with the battery pack - any major issues there?

Not sure what you mean about low ground clearance. Even with the battery pack there is still more clearance than a car or minivan will have.

I don't have snow tires but we get a LOT of snow here (average is about 100"). Never had a clearance issue (even with the hitch we installed). The stock tires performed well for stock tires in the snow. The EV has so much torque that you have be careful with the pedal so that you are not constantly engaging the traction control. I may look into snow tires this winter...


Mike

 

[DevinL]

You could think of it as mental air conditioning given our ~100 degree temperatures down here. Actually, I'm thinking of this because I've been working on Canadian immigration paperwork (I'm Canadian, sponsoring my partner) this week and they encourage you to get all your proverbial ducks in a row early. I want to take the RAV4 with me but also want to be sure that's the right thing to do. Since Vancouver doesn't get that much snow I'm not too worried about it.

To elaborate on my low ground clearance comment, my worry is that I would hit something (like a rock) concealed by snow and do major damage to the battery pack. I've only driven in snow a few times but I suppose I would just take the regular precautions and drive slowly and avoid deep-looking snow the same way one would avoid deep-looking puddles where you are unsure of the actual depth.

If you made it through that kind of winter with just the stock tires then I probably don't have to worry much about snow tires anyways. If it gets really bad I'll just take the Skytrain - and if that's shut down then I've got a good excuse to stay home. :lol: