I live in Northern New Jersey and we can get some pretty bad weather in the winter. The temperatures in January an February are routinely in the 20’s (Fahrenheit) and can even dip down below zero from time to time.
At those temperatures, you really should have dedicated winter tires for proper traction, even if the roads aren’t always snow covered. In fact, most tire experts recommend if the average temperatures where you live are below 45 degrees in the winter you should buy dedicated winter tires instead of using all-season tires.
That’s not a plot to get you to spend more money on tires you really don’t need as I’ve seem some people contend, winter tires are specifically made for use in cold weather and will definitely outperform all-season tires in cold conditions. The rubber compounds used in winter tires are completely different than what is used in summer or all season tires. Winter tires are designed so they become stiffer on the inside of the tire, and more flexible on the outside to provide better grip at lower temperatures. They also have stronger bead construction to resist to multiple mounting and dismounting because winter tires are often mounted and dismounted every year, unlike regular tires that quite often stay mounted on the wheel their entire life. Non winter tires become stiff and lose traction, which increases the chance of the vehicle losing control and skidding.
In my case I absolutely needed to get winter tires because I ordered my i3 with the 20″ Sport wheels. The tires that come with these wheels are summer tires which mean they are not recommend for cold weather use. The three 19″ wheel options for the i3 all come with all season tires and if you don’t live in a really cold area, you can live with all season tires year round. To complicate things even more, there are no winter tire options for the 20″ Sport wheels of the i3. Since there are no other cars that have such tall, skinny wheels as the i3, Bridgestone only made winter tires for the 19″ wheels options. Therefore, anyone that has the optional 20″ Sport wheels and needs to get winter tires, needs to buy a set of 19″ wheels as well. BMW sells a package that uses the base model i3 wheels (#427) and the Bridgestone Blizzak 19″ winter tires.
However, I opted to buy aftermarket wheels made by Rial, and the Blizzak tires from the Tire Rack. I like the look of the Rial wheels, and I also like that they are different from the stock wheels, giving my car a more custom look. I was actually a little surprised when I found out the Tire Rack was going to offer aftermarket wheels for the i3. Since the i3’s wheel sizes are so different from anything used on any other car available today, I didn’t think aftermarket wheels would be available so soon.
I’m sure I’ll take a range hit from this modification, but how much I’m not quite sure. The aggressive tread and softer rummer will increase rolling resistance so that alone will make a difference. The weight will also be a factor. The Rial wheels with the Blizzak tires weigh 39.2 lbs, while my 20″ Sport wheels with the Ecopia EP500’s weigh only 36.2 lbs. Three lbs per wheel might not seem like too much, but it actually will make a difference in the cars electric range. Finally, these wheels aren’t nearly as aerodynamic as the stock wheels so I’m sure my drag coefficient just went up.
READ ALSO: Do you need winter tires on your BMW?
BMW spent a lot of energy designing wheels that were good looking, lightweight and were aerodynamic. These Rial wheels appear not to have taken any of that into consideration when they were designed. The large openings between the spokes are begging for increased wind resistance, and to make matters worse, they aren’t even flush with the rims, the center of the wheels actually bows outward and will clearly increase drag. I’m really not worried about this though because safety, and being able to negotiate the snow covered roads of Northern New Jersey are my primary concerns. Plus, I have the range extender so if my efficiency is reduced by 6 or 7 miles per charge, I’ll still be able to get to wherever I need to go without worrying about running out of juice. Bring it on!
[Source: bmwi3blogspot]
Thanks for the write up! I live in Denver where we can go from -5 (this past week) to 70 in sunny in the blink of an eye during winter, how do winter tires do when it’s in the 50s, 60s, and low 70s?
I own tireStorage.com,
a consumer pickup/delivery and storage service in Denver. We recommend using
winter tires from early November to Mid to late March. If you spend a lot of
time in the mountains, pad that a bit. Winter tires out perform all season
tires when the temperature drops below 43 degrees and there is a performance
drop at higher temperatures. When you have a warm winter day and are on
seasonal tires, add a little distance like you would on ice.
Where can I buy snow chains?
nice post
Thx. Just bought the i3 for my wife with the 20″ tires. Live in Denver, so had to find some option.
You will have to downsize to 19s for winter
So how did the range was impacted with the winter wheels ?
Where did you get the bmw center caps on the wheels, they are pretty cool.
After all of my searching… and frustration, I’m surprised
nobody is “complaining” about this oversight by BMW of USA. This is
either (a) a total ignorant oversight, or (b) an intentional “consumer be damned”
Marketing decision.
I’m in the Kansas City, MO area, and bought my 2015 i3 Tera World from BMW of
Gwinnett Place (Georgia) back in early November. The process took maybe 3 weeks
from my initial contact until I received the car. They knew from my very first
contact that I was near Kansas City, MO.
Our first accumulation of snow was about the same time I received the car,
which prompted my first search for better than stock tires… Winter-weather
related. Obviously this was a waste of a lot of time… including an
international search.
Nothing… Nada… Zip.
Not once did Gwinnett Place BMW ever mention to me that this car, with its
20″ wheels, would not be able to have snow tires or even all-season tires
put on these wheels.
In fact, after contacting all of my “local” BMW dealerships, I discovered that
NONE of them were educated in this… “situation”… BMW Corporate never trained
their sales people that an i3 equipped with the “optional” 20” wheels would NOT
be able to have snow tires mounted… AND that the only recourse would be to
spend a large chunk of money to get their i3 “road-worthy” for Winter.
In my search, I found that BMW actually offers a 19” wheel
and snow-tire combo, with pressure sensors. There are two wheel style options, $1400
and $1900… before tax… so easily $1500 and $2100.
I don’t know about anyone else, but for myself, I had to
take out a loan to buy this car. I also
used up all of my available “cash on-hand” as the down-payment… so where am I
supposed to come up with another $1500 to $2,100?
I would venture a guess that there are actually very few of
us (relative to the total number of i3’s sold in the USA) who are in this
situation… in a snow zone area, with an i3 equipped with the 20” wheels.
BMW could easily choose to help the consumer by making a
very limited scope “apology discount” for those of us in this situation… they
could sell the tire/wheel packages at minimal profit, which would mean a
discount of at least 20%… and the “good will gesture” would likely more than
offset the minimal loss-of-profit.
ronbotar I do not agree
What’s to not agree with? It’s facts.
Another fact is that my latest contact with BMWNA says that not only are the “Winter wheel/tires” sets on back-order across the entire USA… but even back in Germany… and they won’t even guess when, or IF, they will be available again.
They advertise this as a “solution” to the “i3 20-inch wheel problem”… but they aren’t even available.
Their $200USD “good-will discount” offer to help pay for resolution to my problem is rather worthless. They only offer to have my local BMW dealership give me this discount, but even if I buy 19″ wheels on my own and then purchase just the tires at the BMW dealership with the $200 discount, I’m STILL paying more than $100 more than if I buy the tires from TireRack… so I’ll end up buying wheels and tires from tirerack… at about $500 savings.