Featured Why don’t EVs come with spare tires?

Just about every car nowadays doesn't come with a spare. If you're lucky, it comes with a compressor and goop.

 

And yet they dare to claim they invented the "frunk."

Here's how it's supposed to be done:


I live in plenty of places without cell coverage. I'm contemplating getting into that Satellite on cellphone type stuff, but still, being up over a mountain pass without a spare is nuts IMO.

 

Weight, space, cost and the fact that most people can't and/or won't change their own wheel.

 

Our countermeasure for our family with a PHEV -no spare- is this compromise

1. Car came with green goop and a portable compressor (would prefer to never use this option)
2. Purchased a professional tire plug repair set with tools included in a compact zip fabric case-carried in the car.
3. Purchased a jack/tire tool kit with spare from ebay- the jack and tools always stay in the vehicle - spare tire sets in the garage and can be bought out to the site of the flat or carried in the vehicle during long trips. (yes it is fastened down when carried).
4.Our insurance comes with a road hazard policy where you can call out a repair truck for a minor service - gas-jump-flat tire repair- short tow to a safe place etc.
5. Car Manufacturer provides a car service help button in the car to connect you with an entity in an emergency to provide rescue service.

As a side note I made all our children learn and demonstrate how to change a spare before they got their license.
While I have showed my wife she was not a willing participant and only rolled her eyes. I am sure if she suffered a flat her 1st call would be to me and I would handle everything - which is okay.

 

In my case, I have not needed a spare in 40 years (as long as I have driven).
If you are off-roading (as in the article) I understand the desire.
And I do believe you should be allowed to buy your own spare and lug it around.

Tires are stronger and more resistant to blowouts than they once were.
The added weight and cost to manufacturers or all cars just isn’t worth it.

 

I don't know about the other GM EVs, but the Bolts came with Michelin self sealing tires. I still have a jack, compressor and mushroom plug kit in the cars.

 

My Ford PHEV does. And our Sienna hybrid has a spare tire option.

 

I've had to use the spare on my Avalon once since I bought it 6 years ago, well should have used it twice, but did use it once.

Would goop have worked? Maybe. But there was one time I didn't pull out the spare and tried to get home on a low tire and ended up ruining it. Apparently if you use the goop you also have to replace the whole tire. And technically you shouldn't replace just one, but at least two tires at a time. Or preferably all 4. And that's what I did, replaced all 4 tires, which wasn't cheap, and something I could have avoided with a spare, but not with goop. At least the tires I had on there were almost to the point of needing replaced anyway. But if I ruined one of my new tires right now, I up a creek without a paddle.

 

The only thing goop may do is plug up the tire pressure sensor. It doesn't ruin the tire, it just gets messy, which pisses off the tire repair guy.

 

If you goop a tire, the TPMS also needs to be changed and reprogrammed. Tire shops will charge extra for the goop clean-out.

 

The fox-and-grapes comments are one way of accepting this “new reality”. Another ploy would be to simply not buy cars without spares. If that caught on, I think spares would be hastily reinstated.

 

Finding a tire repair guy here takes forever. Many times it's 3 weeks out for them to just look at the tire. I try to stay on good terms with my tire guys, although I'm getting to the point I think I'll just do the repairs and balancing myself. I don't have any way to reprogram the TPMS though. I tried two Ebay disks of TIS and couldn't get either to work, even on various laptops.

 

I've been using one of there for years.
EL50448 TPMS Relearn Reset Tool Auto Tire Pressure Monitor For GM Ford Chevy GMC | eBay

 

There are spares and then there are spares.

My only flat in the last 30 years wasn't actually a flat. It was a bolt through the tread but the tire wasn't losing air. I detected it as I drove into a motel and slowed down to park and heard a clicking sound. I looked and saw it and knew I didn't want to drive my grandson back 250 miles at 70 MPH on that tire. I had a mini spare in the trunk. Not gonna drive there on it either. Fortunately I was in a large urban area where I had spent 62 years and so was familiar with the available tire resources.

Now look for who had a tire. The tires I had had about 4-5k miles on them so all I needed was 1. Calling around this 4 million population area to dealers and tire shops I discovered there were exactly 2 Michelin tires in my tread and size and the shops all got them from the same source and had to wait for them to be next day delivered. So we spent two days getting a tire replaced. I was able to drive to the shop.

Shop installed and inflated the tire to indicated PSI. But on the drive home, I got a warning that my pressures were off. Only now discovered that Toyota ships the tires on new cars from the factory at 50 PSI to reduce sway on the car carriers (train and truck). My original 3 were still at 50 PSI and the new one at 35 and the TPMS detection system sensed something wrong because one was deemed low because the normal PSI had not been reset. Unfortunately I had a car that only gave me a warning and did not display the PSI in each tire and I had not taken the car in for its 5k service where it would have been checked. Selling dealer should have. But i can hardly complain. I bought the car at $3750 below MSRP when others were paying MSRP+.

How long has it been since you located your wheel lug lock socket?

 

The factory likely would have set the TPMS at the spec'd pressure, then raised them to max sidewall for shipping. If they had any sense. Did you maybe go through the TPMS reset routine earlier, with the higher pressures?

 

This one is simple.

Lots of luxury cars don't come with spares.

The owners lessors just aren't the tire-changing types.

And most EVs are luxury cars... so far.

 

Sorry folks, but I will never-ever go anywhere in my daily drivers without a spare wheel assembly, floor jack, jack stand, flares and tools on board. The only exception is my 2019 ZR1 with "run flats", but those tires cost more "each" than I pay for a set of 4 Defenders on my Prius or the RAV4 HV. I do keep a 4-pack of jacking pucks in the Vette though. Carbon Fiber is very expensive to replace.