Tires for My Tesla Model 3 RWD - How Much Do They Cost?

Tire Options for my Tesla Model 3

There was a recent article about the best place to take your Tesla for tires and it had some interesting data. I got my tires rotated for the first time today and was curious about tire prices and asked the technician to show me a list. I was surprised at what I saw.

The lowest end set of 4 tires costs about $450 for all 4 and the highest end tires costs about $1,200 for all 4. My Tesla came with the highest end tires, so it is good to know that Tesla was not skimping on tires when I bought my vehicle. Other cars I've bought in the past put on the cheapest tires possible.

The cheapest tires were the Sentury UHP tires, which cost $416 for all 4 tires. They are touted as all-season tires with good performance. This low cost makes me raise an eyebrow, and I wonder how long they would last at that price. I'd have to buy them and experiment to see, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to take the risk of them being so low quality.

The next set of tires was the Nankang Tire, NS-25 A/S UHP 235 /45 R18 98H XL BSW. That's a lot of information describes various things about the tire, such as height and width and percentages. These tires are also touted as all weather and with good performance, but showed as discontinued on Discount Tire's website. They are $428 for all 4 tires.

The most expensive tires are the Bridgestone Turanza T005A tires at a total of $1,400 for all four. They are touted as summer tires with good performance. I am thinking about getting summer tires and snow tires for my Tesla, but so far I am sticking with all-season tires to reduce the hassle of getting my tires changed for each season.

It looks like the best all-season tires will cost me around $1,200 to get, and they are the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II. You can see the tires listed on the website here.

I can calculate my tire cost if I drive conservatively without speeding too much to cause wear on my tires. It will be about every 20,000 to 25,000 miles is my guess, according to my tread wear right now, which was about 1/3 the way to the maximum allowed. I've been driving and accelerating a lot because my car was new, and I love to feel it accelerate. But, I'm past that point now and drive it casually without the extreme acceleration.

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What Kind of Tires to Get

I expect to change tires about 7 times during the life of my car. That's going to cost me about $9,000 to $10,000 and be done every year and a half. That's about 10 to 11 years and isn't cheap... If my car lasts longer than that, I just have to budget for a set of new tires based on this first set I have and when they finally wear out.

There are many different categories for tires as well:

* Summer tires
* Winter tires
* All-season tires
* Tires for performance and handling
* Tires for maximum range
* Tires for maximum comfort
* Combinations of these

It's a lot of information for me, and I've never really taken the time to understand the applications for the tires I get. I'm leaning toward tires that are all-season and give me the maximum range possible for my vehicle. I don't care about speed and performance as much as longevity and range.

Most likely, I will get my tires replaced next year some time, and I'll share more details when that time comes. I can say that the tires for a Tesla are much more expensive than they were for my Honda Fit. I'd say about twice the cost, or so, and I'll have to factor that in the overall maintenance cost.

Do you own a Tesla? What has your experience been with tires for it?

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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.

Image Credit, Tesla, Screenshot