Prius Tire Reviews

• Blizzak WS80, stock size on 15 inch steel rims
• Snow tires
• Wore out after around 9,000 miles total in two seasons (6/32" is the legal minimum for tires in Colorado in the winter, and snow tires don't work well below 6/32" in snow anyway)
• Noisy. Very soft tread. Slight decrease in EV range (maybe 10% less than with LRR all seasons). When new the front wheels often spin on dry pavement. When broken in it's less of a problem. Winter grip was fine when new, but nothing special. At 6/32" I felt the car starting to lose traction in a straight line at higher speeds a couple times, which is concerning. Maybe I just encountered unusually bad road conditions. 0/10, would never buy again.

 

Haven't had to buy any new set of summer tires for my PRIME yet.

OEM on 2017 PRIME was

• Dunlop Enasave 01 AS 195/65/15
  
• all season (mainly summer)
  
• during 27 months after purchase, had them on 23 months 31Kmiles total
  
• Excellent mpg on PRIME, not very comfortable or quiet especially after tire worn out. Low tread depth of 8/32 when new and after 31K miles they were 4/32 remaining. I had this OEM tire on my first winter, absolutely not the tire you want to keep if you drive on snow.

For winter

• Michelin X Ice Xi3 Enasave 01 AS 195/65/15 on separate aftermarket MB ICON alloy wheel
  
• dedicated winter
  
• during 15 months after purchase, had them on 8.5 months 8.6Kmiles total
  
• Excellent mpg on PRIME no noticeable drop in mpg from OEM. Very comfortable and quiet (better than OEM Dunlop AS tires). Excellent traction on deep snow and packed snow. Not as good on ice as studded tires I have had before. Good tread life, 10.5/32 when new and after 8.9K miles they are 8-9/32 remaining. It comes with 6yrs/40,000 Miles tread warranty. AFAIK, XIce are the only dedicated winter tires on market that comes with tread warranty. When the ambient temp get above 50F, the tires are very squishy and make very high pitch noise even at low speed driving.

OEM on 2020 PRIME was

• Bridgeston Ecopia EP422 Plus 195/65/15 (4 ribs OEM tires Made in Japan)
  
• all season (mainly summer)
  
• I only had this for 4 moths and driven only 1.8kmiles total
  
• Excellent mpg on PRIME, reasonably quiet when new. Low tread depth of 9/32 when new. I have not driven long enough on this set of tires to comment on tread life. There are at least three different iterations of Ecopia EP422 Plus on market. They have different specs and are made in either in Japan (mostly OEM) or US or Mexico. I have had both US and Mexico ones on my previous gen3. They are all very good for mpg, but not so good on snow. Aftermarket EP422 Plus comes with 70K miles tread warranty, but my previous sets lasted only 30K. I will see how long this Made in Japan OEM version will last.

 

That is true, but if you read the fine print it would be almost impossible to collect on that warranty (or any tire warranty), unless your tire shop is generous and makes the decision themselves without the manufacturer being involved.

 

Yeah, I know the tread warranty on tires are mostly a marketing gimmick. For most part I don't even expect the full warranty miles on any of regular tires. But just the fact Michelin has the tread warranty on this snow tire brand while no other companies are doing it makes me to speculate that this brand of winter tires may in fact outlast many other competitors. But that's only my speculation. I have no proof or data to compare. I maybe just being gullible enough to buy into the gimmick. lol

 

I think a warranty gives a reasonable idea of the expected life. But I almost forgot, the problem with a warranty on snow tires specifically is that you have to wear the tires down to 2/32" (or at least that's my understanding), and you can also only use the tires in winter months (defined by the warranty), but 2/32" tread is clearly inadequate in winter months.

At the rate you're going, you'll probably hit 6/32 around 20k miles. That's reasonable for winter tires, and it sounds like they are nice enough to run them in the summer past 6/32 if you want.

 

With linear tread wear of approximately 1/32 each winter 4-5Kmiles, I expect Xice to last 4 winters down to 6.5/32 or maybe 5 winters if I go down to 5.5/32. That's pretty good for any tire. I doubt even some long tread life all-season tires with 80K or 90K will last longer than 50K (5 years with 10Kmiles/year) on our chipseal road surface.