I owe the folks at Lucid Motors a thank-you note. It was only after spending a week in their all-new Gravity SUV that I realized something wasn’t right about my own car.
It’s not that my 2024 Kia EV6 is lacking in range, performance, or comfort. None of that’s on the same level as a $123,000 Gravity Grand Touring, of course, but it’s not supposed to be.
No, the realization hit me after spending a week with an EV on a brand-new set of tires, and then taking my Kia for a spin. The EV6’s traction, vibrations, road noise, braking—all those things suddenly just felt off in a way that hadn’t occurred to me. Sometimes, a problem with your car can develop so gradually that you don’t even realize it until you get that kind of wake-up call.
There was no mincing words: “Oh, that doesn’t feel right.”
Photo by: Patrick George
When I got home, I grabbed a penny out of a change dish and took it outside. Sure enough, I could plainly see Mr. Lincoln’s head on all four tires. It was time for a new set of rubber.
Cars need new tires sometimes. That’s a fact of life, no matter what powers them. Except that my EV6 is going to need new ones after about 17,000 miles and 15 months of ownership—less than half what all the gas cars I’ve owned have managed in the past.
Yes, EV tire degradation is a real thing, and a real concern for owners like me. Let’s dig into what happened and what I plan to do about it.
Kia EV6: Tire Report
Tires are so much more important than we give them credit for. They can make or break your ownership experience.
They’re what touch the ground, bear the weight of the car, deal with all the weather and are tasked with the whole “moving and stopping” part, which is kind of the whole point. Good ones can transform your car. Put a decent set of summer performance tires on a Chevy Bolt, and you can send some gas-car owners home from the autocross competition with hurt feelings. Similarly, a BMW M3 on a poor, cheap or worn set of rubber will never realize its full potential as a performance car.
I’d argue that tires matter even more for EV drivers. Certain tires can make or break your electric range; that Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT I recently tested never managed the efficiency or distance capabilities of the standard car, thanks in large part to its all-terrain tires designed for light off-roading.
Above, you can see the penny test for three tires: My EV6 up top, a new 2025 Kia EV6 I am currently testing on the bottom left, and my gas Mazda on the bottom right, which recently got a new set of tires too. See the difference?
And with EVs being generally heavier than their gas-powered counterparts—my EV6 weighs about 4,300 pounds, roughly 900 more than a comparable gas-powered Kia Sportage—they literally have a greater load to bear. That, and their instant torque from electric motors, can cause an EV’s tires to wear much more quickly than a gas car’s.
My EV6 is a Wind AWD model, the middle child of the lineup with dual-motor all-wheel-drive. It came equipped with Kumho Crugen HP71 tires. They’re all-season tires optimized for low noise.
Candidly, I’ve never been a great fan of them. Though it’s a reasonably beefy crossover, it’s got a lot of power and rides on a good chassis, so it’s quite fun to drive. But the Kumhos have always felt a bit soft, unable to do the car’s handling much justice.
Photo by: Patrick George
(It’s here I should note that tire takes are extremely subjective—more so than other car aspects. If you ask 10 people about tire noise, performance and quality, you’ll probably get 10 different opinions. These are mine, and plenty of folks will say I’m wrong.)
At any rate, the Crugens won’t be missed. But I’m not thrilled that I have to pay several hundred dollars to replace them so quickly.
How Does EV Tire Maintenance Work?
Along with adding wiper fluid, tire rotations are about the only routine maintenance you need to perform on an EV. I’ve had two done in the past year, and I get periodic email reminders to do it via my Kia account. Each time it’s been about $70 at my local mechanic.
It can be easy to forget to do this, especially since tire rotations often happen at oil changes, which I no longer need. But it’s important because it promotes even tire wear and helps keep all four running as long as they can.
Is This Level Of EV Tire Wear Normal?
Photo by: Patrick George
The answer is somewhere between “maybe” and “it depends.” An often-cited number is that EV tires wear out 20% faster than gas-powered ones, but that certainly isn’t uniform across the board.
I’ve read experiences with this EV6, and other EVs, that are all over the map. This Reddit user’s EV6 Kumhos lasted at 30,000 miles, and other owners made it that long too. A forum user had to replace their EV6 Wind’s tires around 16,000 miles, too. Another owner groused about similar longevity on Facebook. In that thread, another user said they’re on their third set at 80,000 miles.
Generally, on all the gas cars I’ve owned, I’ve made a good set of rubber last between 30,000 and 40,000 miles. As with everything, your mileage may vary—tire wear depends on a ton of factors, including your driving style, weather, how often you perform rotations and the compounds themselves.
Different cars, and even different car brands, can show very different results. Tesla, for example, has long been criticized for excessive and uneven tire wear. But I also think it’s partly because there are simply more Teslas on the road than any other EV, so naturally that brand was going to be the first to make this issue obvious.
And of course, a set of tires on a high-performance EV6 GT or Ford F-150 Lightning or a Nissan Leaf will all show their wear differently.
How Much To Replace A Set Of EV Tires?
Photo by: InsideEVs
According to Tire Rack, another set of Kumhos would be $259.35 per tire, or $1,037.40 for a set of four, plus installation. Since I didn’t like those tires anyway, I won’t be going that route. Coincidentally, I am currently testing the updated 2025 Kia EV6, and it comes on a set of Continental CrossContact all-season tires that I like better. They’re cheaper anyway, so I may just go that route.
But here’s the thing: I have no intention of spending $800 to $1,000 on tire replacements every year for th EV6. Even with cheap home charging, no oil changes or other maintenance and no gas costs, that’s a bigger hit to my wallet than I’d prefer. So whatever I get next, I want them to last longer.
What About EV-Specific Tires?
EV-specific tires are a relatively new field in the rubber world. Companies like Hankook, Michelin, Bridgetstone, Goodyear and more are expanding their offerings. But it’s important to separate hype from facts.
Supposedly, these tires offer lower rolling resistance than normal tires, which should equate to more electric range. And many options allegedly offer materials and structures built to better handle the extra weight and torque of an EV. Others also come with extra sound-dampening abilities because the quiet nature of EVs means you hear more road noise.
Does your EV need EV-specific tires? The answer isn’t as cut-and-dried as that same question about snow tires. The tire companies will tell you all day that you probably do, but they also want your money. Having said that, I don’t doubt that they really are doing the work to make tires for these cars better, and longer-lasting.
“An EV tire is just a tire that has characteristics that EV drivers want,” Joshua Sorter, director tire development at Discount Tire, told me at a tire event I attended last year. “They don’t necessarily need that label. Something explicitly not an EV tire can have excellent efficiency.” A Tesla Model 3, he said, is just a BMW 3 Series, except heavier and it puts down power differently. And there’s no reason you cannot use regular tires on an EV.
It comes down to priorities and research. Tire Rack’s recent test of EV-specific tires notes that some rubber sets prioritize raneg, while others are focused on longevity. It’s a good idea to read a lot of independent tests and reviews, plus owner accounts, and figure out what suits your needs best.
Will EV Tires Always Wear Down More Quickly?
Photo by: Patrick George
I truly don’t think so. I moderated a panel on EV performance at the Electrify Expo Industry Day event in Long Island, and Sharda Mohammed, the marketing and brand director for Michelin, told me that tires that wear our more quickly isn’t the gift to their business you might think it is. Not if customers aren’t happy with their experience. “We’re always working on ways to make a better product,” she said.
As EV ownership only continues to grow globally, I have no doubt that new compounds, structures and designs will make electric tires last longer—and be more sustainable, which is the whole point of an EV. For now, I hope my next set of rubber can hang in a little longer.
What’s been your experience with EV tires? Drop a note in the comments or shoot me an email.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
