The Polestar 2 is an electric car. Here, the host uses it as a test car to see how changing tires can change things like road noise and driving efficiency.
Road noise is the noise your tires make while you drive. Because electric cars are usually quiet, tire noise can stand out a lot more than it would in a louder gas car.
Formula E is an electric racing series. The host is claiming the tire rubber technology is inspired by what works in those racecars, which are also electric.
Ion Flex Climate tyres are an all-weather version of Hankook’s EV tires. The host brings them up because they’re meant for more variable weather than the summer-style tires he used.
All-season tires are made to work reasonably well in different weather—warm, wet, and some cold. The host is saying they felt more confident on slippery winter roads with these.
Ion Flex Climate SUV is a tire model meant to work across seasons. The host picked it to match the type of tires they already had so they could judge the difference more fairly.
The Ford Flex is a larger family vehicle with a lot of space for passengers and cargo. It’s often used for everyday driving, so tire choices matter for comfort and grip. In the podcast, it’s mentioned in connection with all-season tires designed for different weather conditions.
Goodyear Vector four-seasons is a type of tire designed to work in different seasons. The speaker had these before and is switching to a new set so they can compare how the car feels.
The Volkswagen Eos is a car model made by Volkswagen, and many versions are known for their special roof design. In this podcast, though, “EOS” is also being used to refer to a specific tire line meant for electric vehicles. So the discussion is about the tire, not about the car’s battery or motor.
The speaker mentions an EV-focused tire line (“EOS”) made for electric cars. The idea is that EV tires are designed to help with things like efficiency and how quiet the ride feels.
Summer tires are designed mainly for warm weather. They usually work best when it’s not cold, and they can be less effective in winter conditions—though the host says they still run them all year.
Here, “handling” means how the car feels when you turn the steering wheel—how well it sticks to the road. The host is basically saying the new tires didn’t make the car feel dramatically different.
Term
driving ... more efficient
For an EV, “more efficient” usually means you get more driving range on the same battery. Tires can influence that because they affect how much energy it takes to roll down the road.
Car
E-Niro
The Kia e-Niro is an electric crossover meant for normal everyday driving. The host is saying it wasn’t really a car you’d buy for sharp handling in the first place, so tire changes are being judged against that reality.
Braking distance is how much road you need to stop once you press the brake. On wet roads, tires matter a lot because they affect how well the car can slow down. The host says the new tires didn’t seem to make stopping worse.
Aquaplaning is when your tires ride on top of water instead of gripping the road. When that happens, the car can feel like it’s not stopping or turning as well. Fresh tires (especially with good tread) help push water out of the way so grip stays more consistent.
Decibels are how we measure how loud something is. They’re using an app to measure the sound level during the drive so they can compare how noisy the old tires were versus the new ones.
Goodyear is a tire brand. In this test, the older Goodyear tires were a bit louder than the newer Hankook tires based on the decibel averages they recorded.
Here, “efficiency” means how much battery energy you use to drive. If tires make the car easier to roll, you use less energy and can go farther before needing to charge.
This is a way to measure how far the EV goes using a certain amount of battery energy. More miles per kWh means you’re getting better range for the same battery energy.
It’s a way to measure how efficiently an EV uses its battery. If you get more miles from the same amount of electricity, the car is being more efficient.
Brand
handcooks
They’re talking about a tire brand—likely Hankook. They feel the new tires helped the EV use energy more efficiently and made it quieter.
Kilowatt-hours (kWh) measure how much energy is stored in the EV’s battery. More kWh generally means more potential range, assuming similar efficiency.
Brand
Goodyers
This sounds like they mean Goodyear tires. They’re saying the new tires are similar to their old Goodyear set, just with some extra quietness.
Brand
Hancock
They’re thanking “Hancock” for putting the tires on. That just means someone helped with the tire change.
Rolling resistance is the “drag” from the tires rolling on the road. Tires with lower rolling resistance help the car use less energy, which can improve EV range.
A control group is the comparison baseline. If you don’t have one, you can’t be sure the results are truly from the tires and not from things like weather or how you drove.
Millbrook Proving Ground is a UK test facility used by automakers to run controlled vehicle and tire evaluations. It’s referenced here as an example of where you could do repeatable tests (same speed, temperature, and laps) to isolate tire effects.
EV-specific tires are tires made to help electric cars go farther. They’re usually designed to be quieter and waste less energy as the tire rolls.
LIVE
Hi, I'm Gary and this is Evie Musings, a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles and things
that are interesting to electric vehicle owners. On the show today, we'll be following up on the
new Evie tyres that we put on last season. I know it's been a while, but if you cash your
mind back to last season episode 278 to be precise, I spoke with Neil Barrett from Hankook.
At the time, we were talking about the impact of having an Evie specific tyre on the vehicle
and what benefits that will provide. Thanks to Neil and his team, I swapped out my tyres for a
set of Hankook Ion Evos, which are designed specifically for electric vehicles. And the
reason I did this is because when I took delivery of my Polestar 2, it had been fitted with a set
of Davanti tyres, which are budget tyres. And the issue with this is that they were providing
quite a lot of road noise when I drove the car. So I figured it might be time to get some sort of
upgraded tyres onto the vehicle. The Hankook Ion series tyres are developed from the rubber
attached to the Formula E series of racecars, so you know they're probably going to be ideal
for electric driving. But apart from putting some new tyres or some new rubber on the car,
I wanted to check and see what sort of an impact these tyres had on my efficiency.
Was they getting no longer range? Did they in fact reduce the noise I was experiencing?
Things like that. At the same time, Andrew Till, Mr Evie and I had a chat, we worked out that he'd
also been given some tyres by Hankook. But they were all weather tyres, so slightly different to
mine, which were effectively summer tyres. He had the Ion Flex Climate tyres. Now I put mine on
late October, so I've had them on for about six months. But before I did, I managed to take
a few measurements for things like efficiency. On top of that, I took several measurements
around road noise when driving the car. I did this on a 15 minute local run, which I repeated
several times to get an average. I also did a run up and down a local dual carriageway between two
roundabouts to see what that did. This run had several rough and smooth parts to validate the
difference the tyres made as well. As an average, the inside of the car was showing noise in the
68 decibel range prior to fitting the new tyres. So how have things done and what's happened with
Andrew Till and his tyres? Let's go over and see. The Evie Musings podcast is sponsored by Zatmap,
the go-to app for Evie drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence.
So, Andrew. Yes. Tell me a little bit about the tyres they put on your vehicle.
Yes. So these are the Ion Flex Climate SUV. These are all-season tyres. The reason I put on
all-seasons is because my previous tyres were all-seasons as well. So I had... Oh, goodness.
There was a Goodyear Vector four-seasons before. So I wanted to swap like for like because it
wouldn't have been fair if I'd gone for different tyres, summarised. So got the all-seasons.
And yeah, they're really good. Excellent. And as I say, I've got the Ion, the EOS, which are
specifically designed for electric vehicles. They're not all-seasons. They're just...
I think we call them summer tyres. Yes. Although I do use them all year, but hey, there we go.
So the three things or the three major areas that we need to have a quick discussion about are
what's it done to the handling of the car? Does it sound any better? And has it made your driving
any more efficient? Yes. Okay. Any sequence, any order that you want to go with on those?
Well, let's go handling first. Okay. Now, it's not like the E-Niro is some sort of
handling master anyway, right? I mean, it's kind of a crossovery sort of thing.
Handling is not its main job. However, it's been pretty good. But then it was pretty good before.
So my old Goodyear's were very good, especially in bad weather. I mean, that's the thing. These
all-seasons are amazing. It's a revelation for me, really. I would see people just slipping around
in the ice. In fact, when it got really icy down my road, there was a Tesla that was going all over
the place. And I was smug as anything when I was driving with my Goodyear's. And it'll be the same
with these. All seasons are great. So in terms of handling, I felt no real difference between the
old tires and these ones. It's been very good for both. Excellent. And from my point of view,
as you may know, I had some old Chinese cheap brand Davantis. I don't know how many miles
had been put on before I got the vehicle as I got the second hand. But having put these on,
I don't have any sort of empirical data. But anecdotally, they feel better. I took them
not too far, not too long ago. Actually, I went to the Cotswolds, and it's all uphill and down
Dale. And there's a nice big road there that kind of drops down and sweeps around with a fairly sharp
curve on it. And I felt quite comfortable, not speeding, because, of course, we do like to
keep to the speed limits. But rather than having to sort of slam the brakes on and go around,
I felt comfortable letting the car use the weight of the car to go around the corner.
And it gripped. It was fantastic. It's all about having confidence, isn't it? And I think I have
complete confidence driving this in whatever the weather that they just feel nice and planted.
We've also had some fairly wet weather over the last couple of months.
We have. And I think I haven't noticed any problem with the braking distance. I feel comfortable
putting brakes on and not having aquaplaning. I've got bad history with aquaplaning.
So, yeah, they seem really good and solid.
Yeah. So, let's talk noise. Yes. Now, you and I both have used a, it's actually an app that's
being used to help people who are working in loud environments to see whether there's any
occupational safety and health violations. But the flip side to that is you can stick it in the car,
you can do a journey, and it will record average, well, high decibels, average decibels, that sort
of thing. And you can then do the same journey a number of times, average it out and compare
with the old tires versus new tires. Now, you've done that. I've done that. What were your results?
So, I would do the drive back from school every day. So, I did this four times to get an average.
Just make me consult my little black book. Come with figures and everything.
I've got figures and everything. I know. I always feel a little bit like Johnny Smith
when I've got my little black book, which is no bad thing. So, the Hankooks were better. So,
I got an average of 67.9 decibels in the Hankooks. It was 68.7 in the old Goodyear's.
Now, bear in mind, this is about as scientific as I get, but the road is awful. The roads around
here are absolutely dreadful. So, I have to avoid potholes, and I did avoid potholes on every test,
but still, just to say, it's not perfectly scientific.
Never ever going to be perfectly scientific unless we hit mill proofing ground or something like that.
I did a similar thing. I've got two runs that I do once a local coffee shop. It's about 15 minutes
and one, which is a dual carriageway between two different roundabouts. So, did the run a couple
of times before and after, averaged it out. And whilst I don't have the exact figures here,
there was a difference of around a decibel between the debanters and the Hankooks.
Now, a decibel, it doesn't sound like a lot, but am I right in thinking decibels are exponential?
So, when you go at one decibel, it's not one decibel. It's an exponential with the decibel.
Yeah, you're asking the wrong person. I'm going to clear.
We'll look it up. I'll flash something up.
It sounds about right.
Yeah. And the final thing is efficiency. Now, obviously, with there being an electric,
if you can have a tire which will improve your efficiency, you're going to get a longer
range on a battery. You're not going to have to charge as often. It's going to be cheaper
doing a journey. So, what's the efficiency hit or not, or otherwise?
So, I tried to be scientific in this respect. Again, failed miserably. So, I was testing my
efficiency every time I did the noise test. However, I forgot that some days I had the
heating on and some days I didn't. So, it's not exact. The Goodyear seemed to be more efficient
than these, but also, bear in mind, I'd done 21,500 miles in the Goodyear and just hundreds of miles
in these. And when the tread wears down more, then it tends to get more efficient. So, it's
not a true test, but the Goodyear seemed a bit more efficient. On the exact same temperature,
same route with different tires, the Goodyear was 0.1 mile per kilowatt hour more efficient.
But that's not scientific, is it? So, what I want to do is do a proper test one of these days.
I'm pretty much the same. I've actually done way more miles on the new tires than I had on the
old tires. And again, it's a case of you have to have the same weather conditions, the same road
conditions, the same traffic conditions, all that sort of stuff. Very, very difficult. I know that
before I put the handcooks on, I was averaging, depending on the weather, 3.1 miles per kilowatt
hour. It's an old vehicle. It's got inefficient motors. Don't worry about that. I'm now up around
3.4, 3.5. So, again, the weather's changed, although you wouldn't guess it today.
So, I'm comfortable that I'm getting an efficiency improvement. How much it actually is in real
terms? I couldn't tell you, but from the data that I've got, 0.1, 0.2 miles per kilowatt hour. So,
it all adds up. You multiply that by what I've got, 78 kilowatt hours in this one. So, you do the
maths, and it's going to give you a good extra number of miles for every tank that you use,
every tank, every charge. There's me. I know you spend a couple of years driving a
internal combustion engine, and then they change it all for you here. So, overall,
impressions on the tires? Well, I'm really impressed with them, but then I really liked
my old tires. So, just to say that my good years were fantastic, and these are fantastic as well.
And just one little thing I would like to mention, just in terms of noise, is that my daughter said,
have we changed the driveway, Dad? Because she noticed that it was much quieter, driving onto
our terrible gravel driveway, much quieter in these than the old ones. She didn't know that I
changed the tires, because I would have bought her senseless had I told her that. So, that was
something that she noticed. Now, that could just be the difference in tread, I don't know, but that's
something that she noticed. And I did notice, after getting the tires, that it was a bit quieter.
So, that's just the noise thing. The rest of it, as I said, these tires are practically the same as
the old Goodyers, really. And they're great. I've got nothing to complain about. They're fantastic.
If I had basic budget tires, then the difference, I think, would have been
more pronounced. But I'm very happy anyway. Likewise. Likewise. So, I'm very glad that
Hancock put them on for us. And many thanks to Hancock for doing that.
Yes, thank you. So, what can we deduce from this? From Andrew's point of view, he didn't see a great
deal of difference, because he was replacing quality, fairly low mileage tires with quality,
very low mileage tires. So, the difference wasn't as big. For me, I was replacing a set of budget
tires with indeterminate mileage with a set of quality tires with zero mileage. The data I have
indicate that these tires are both quieter and more efficient than the old tires I had.
But overall, there is a certain amount of internal cognitive justification for this. In my mind,
these are more expensive tires that should perform better than cheaper ones. They feel
better to drive with. They feel quieter. And I can see there's been an efficiency boost,
albeit quite small. Neil told us last season that the brand new tires will be less efficient for a
while until the outer layer of oils, etc., is worn off. And that could account for some of the lower
efficiency improvement. But I've now done around 3,000 miles with these tires. And as the weather
improves and heats up, I'm expecting big things. It has to be said, though, that all of these data
we're pushing forward are not particularly scientific. There's no control group measurements.
We aren't trying to ensure comparative conditions at all times. Some runs were done in warm weather,
some were done in wind, some were in traffic, some without. And as I said to Andrew at the time,
if we were really serious about this, we'd do a run at somewhere like Millbrook Proving Ground with
constant speed around the high speed track. Constant temperature, constant traffic, 10 laps
with the old tires on, 10 laps with the new tires on, repeat several times over different
outside temperatures and weather conditions. But we can't afford to hire at Millbrook,
so we're going for what we can. If you're after a longer, more detailed look at the tires,
then Andrew has a full length video up on his channel linking the show notes.
Having listened to Neil from Handcook last season and the results of the swap this season,
do you rate your go for EV-specific tires next time you need to swap yours?
Let me know in the comments. I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show. It was put together
this week with the help of Neil Barrett from Handcook, tires and Mr. EV himself, Andrew Till.
Many thanks for the time.
The EV Musings podcast is sponsored by Zatmap, the go-to app for EV drivers helping you find and
pay for public charging with confidence. Zatmap is free to download and use with subscription
plans for enhanced features such as using Zatmap in car, on carplay or android auto,
and discounted charging across thousands of charge points.
And on the socials, I'm on BlueSky at evmusings.bsky.social. I'm also on Instagram
at evmusings where I post short videos and podcast extracts regularly, so why not follow me there?
Thanks to everyone who supports me through Patreon on a monthly basis and through coffee.com
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slash evmusings and you can do just that. ko-fi.com slash evmusings takes apple pay too.
Now regular listeners will know about my two ebooks so you've gone electric and so you've
gone renewable. First one of those has had a recent update you'll see with a bright red image on the
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and you can get them on the Amazon Kindle store. Check out the links in the show notes for more
information as well as a link to my regular evmusings newsletter and associated articles.
Now I know you're probably driving or walking or jogging or in the shower or washing the car
but if you can remember and you enjoyed this episode, proper review in iTunes please.
Really helps me out. I did go out and go in and have a look recently at some of the
most recent reviews. Thank you very much for those who took time to do that for me.
If you've reached this part of the podcast and are still listening, thank you. Why not let me
know you've got to this point by messaging me at musingsv.p's kind of social with the words
over tired hashtag if you know you know nothing else. And thanks as always to my co-founder Simon.
You know I asked him if he ever felt that the electric unicycle wasn't the right vehicle for him
and he told me it's all about having confidence isn't it and I think I have complete confidence.
Thanks for listening. Bye bye.
About this episode
Swapping EV tires becomes a mini science project as the host moves from budget tyres to Hankook EV-focused options on a Polestar 2. They baseline cabin noise (around 68 dB), then compare before/after results using repeated local and dual-carriageway runs, plus real-world impressions like quieter gravel-driveway driving. Wet-weather confidence and aquaplaning concerns come up, alongside efficiency/range math (mi/kWh and a 78 kWh battery). The episode also admits the lack of a control group and sketches how a proving-ground test could be done.
I wanted to revisit something that matters to every EV driver - tyres.
In this episode, I follow up on the Hankook ION EVO tyres I fitted last season (replacing a set of budget Devantis), and I’m joined by Andrew Till (Mr EV) who fitted the all-season ION FlexClimate SUV tyres. We compare notes on handling, road noise, and real-world efficiency after several months and thousands of miles.
What You’ll Discover
- The Difference EV-Specific Tyres Actually Make: From reduced road noise to better planted feel and confidence in corners and wet conditions.
- Real-World Noise & Efficiency Results: Our (imperfect but honest) decibel measurements and efficiency comparisons between old and new tyres.
- Summer vs All-Season EV Tyres: How the Hankook ION range performs in daily driving and what to expect when upgrading.
What really stood out to me is how much of a difference quality EV-specific tyres can make, especially if you’re coming from budget rubber. The car feels noticeably quieter and more composed, and while exact efficiency gains are hard to isolate perfectly, both of us are seeing small but meaningful improvements that add up over time. As Neil from Hankook explained last season, brand new tyres need a bit of wear before they’re at their most efficient - so the best is probably still to come.
If you’re thinking about your next tyre change or you’ve been putting up with noisy rubber, this episode gives you a real-driver perspective on whether EV-specific tyres are worth it.
The EV Musings Podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence.
The EV Musings Podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence. Zapmap is free to download and use, with subscription plans for enhanced features such as using Zapmap in-car on CarPlay or Android Auto, and discounted charging across thousands of charge points.
Download the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store or find out more at www.zapmap.com.
