EV owners say OE tires wearing out too soon

SAN ANTONIO — Experts have cautioned that electric vehicles (EVs) were going to be hard on tires, but new research shows it's worse than the industry expected, ... much worse.

According to the 2023 JD Power OE Tire Customer Satisfaction survey results, EV owners say they they expect to get about 40,000 miles of life out of their OE tires. The reality, it turns out, is starkly different.

Consumers are getting just 13,000 miles before needing to purchase a replacement set, the market research firm disclosed at the Smithers Traction Summit, under way in San Antonio.

"Customers put a third of importance on tires' performance and wear," Ashley Edgar, JD Power senior director of automotive supplier benchmarking and alternative mobility, said. 

"… Customers are expecting to get longer life out of their tires, but they are having to replace them three times sooner than expected."

That, she added, could have significant impacts for the replacement decisions and, ultimately, brand loyalty.

The reasons for the rapid wear of EV tires is well known across the industry, as heavier vehicle weights, increased torque and regenerative braking add up to new challenges for tire makers, ones they're working diligently to solve, especially on the materials science and compounding sides.

It's a problem they're going to need to solve sooner rather than later because, as JD Power notes, nearly 30% of all new vehicles on U.S. roadways by 2026 are projected to be electric, versus about 10%  percent of sales this year.

"The adoption of electric vehicles has slowly been ramping up," Brent Gruber, JD Power's executive director of electric vehicle practice, told Smithers Traction Summit attendees, "but the time to approach those (EV) challenges or attack those challenges is certainly now. We are expecting adoption to increase dramatically in the next few years."

The JD Power OE Tire Customer Satisfaction survey reaches customers between one and two years after their vehicle purchase and requests feedback on four specific tire performance areas: appearance, ride, wear, traction and handling.

Considering the survey results overall, owners of internal-combustion-engined (ICE) vehicles registered greater satisfaction with tire wear than EV owners.

"Digging a little deeper into what areas improved, all four categories that we looked at had a year-over-year improvement, with traction and handling being the most," Edgar said.

Comparing the satisfaction ratings of EV and ICE owners, one could surmise that much of the work the industry has done to address the major concerns of EVs — particularly in relation to ride comfort — made a difference.

"In all three areas of ride (comfort, vibration and noise), BEVs are exceeding ICE," Edgar said.

"… It's clear that the efforts of both the OEMs working on the vehicle and tire makers working on the tire improvement that the entire system is working in harmony. There is no rattling in the engine, no tire noise. Nor is there an engine providing the noise vibration of the vehicle. There is more energy put into ensuring those characteristics are satisfied, since they are more highly noticeable."

Regarding the 2023 survey, the data being pulled in relate to model years 2020 to 2022 and a timeframe when U.S. BEV sales were round 3%. Given the number of EV options on the market, there were few models and brands to be surveyed.

Because the industry is on the cusp of seeing EV sales rise, the data are coming primarily from what could be considered early adopters of EV technology, who tend to have fewer problems and more positive outlooks regarding their vehicles, Edgar said..

Moreover, the 2023 survey saw a year-over-year increase of luxury models in the mix — a 27% overall jump to be exact. Luxury vehicle owners tend to have higher satisfaction rates due to an increased emphasis on quality, JD Power said.

This also means that, within the coming five years or so, the survey data will begin to diversify, Edgar said, as the number of the BEV offerings increase — both by model and brand — to meet mainstream buyers where they are.

"To put that in perspective, at the end of 2023, half of all shoppers will have a viable EV option available to them," Gruber said. "That means there is a product of interest that fits their budget, fits the body style they are looking for or the brands they are interested in."

In the next three years, that only will accelerate more rapidly.

By year-end  2026, Gruber said, three-fourths of shoppers will have viable EV options available, making the issue of excessive tire wear more critical than ever.

"I think it's an important factor for tire makers to consider," Edgar said, "because it ties directly to brand loyalty come replacement time."