Energy Efficient Tyres

It depends on how many miles you drive and the cost of gas (petrol). With the high fuel cost in England I would think any MPG improvment would be cost efficient.

 

It would be on a full set, and over the life of the tyres it is possible to nearly pay for that set of tyres that are in all likelihood safer to drive on than the budget set would be.

 

I try to look at the price, and the tread wear rating. UTQG rating for tread wear has been a decent guideline. Until lately, LRR tires didm;t have a decent rating for longevity. The Michelin ES has an UTQG of 480, while the Michelin Premier AS touring has a rating of 640. The premiers are about $70 a set more than the ES.

I will note that my Yokohama BlueEarth S34's are even more expensive, but with a UTQG of only 320. The non LRR Yokohama Envigors, which we have on our Camry Hybrid have a UTQG of 560, and cost far less than the others. In fact, our Camry has consistently gotten better mileage after replacing the worn out LRR tires previously installed. Over 40k miles now, still plenty left.

 

it's probably not much improvement over the oem's, but it's night and day regarding quietness, smoothness, handling and tread wear.

 

My tires only get a NA UTQG of 500AA, but they are actually high performance snow tires that are meant to be used all year.

They are great in rain, dry snow and ice, and save more money because I no longer need to keep and change to winter tires for half of the year.

On the EU rating, they are only CC72's..... you can do better, but again these are all weather tires.

Very quiet, very responsive and ultra low rolling.

Nokian WRG3 in NA, WRA3 is EU.... worth a look in my opinion.

Roland

 

Do not believe in Michelins claims. Although Michelin tyres do last millage wise keep a close eye on the ratings on the EU labeling system. You will find the real comparison truth. Michelin make some good tyres but not all are LRR and as far as I am aware they do not make an A rated tyre for economy, when many other manufacturers do even some budget one's.
There are now many LRR tyres out there especially in the slightly larger size of 205/55/16's, and some budget tyres come out ahead of the Michelin. Michelin also seem to use the same tyre name on different products that have very different RR figure. I am not sure, but I think this is a ploy to make customers think all there tyres are good for fuel economy.
The Michelin Energy Saver tyres fuel economy rating goes from B rating to E rating for the same size tyre (205/55/16). Now in my opinion you cannot have a tyre that saves energy "fuel" with an E rating unless you are comparing it with an F or G rating the bottom of the ratings.
The 5% saving would be one tyre against another, or one set of tyres against another set, makes no difference, but they do not state what tyre (s) they are comparing it with so the figure becomes meaningless.
The EU tyre rating system gives the difference between G and A ratings "lowest and highest" as 7.5% so Michelins claim of 5% improvement would have to take you from an E to an A rating to be viable.
The OEM Bridgestone ER300 fitted in the UK market are not good LRR tyres rated E on the labeling system so they are not hard to better.

John (Britprius)

 

OEM tires have to stay the same I believe, and cannot change and adapt new technologies. I believe the ES is from 2009. They have a new expensive LRR out now.

 

The UK/EU tyres are not the same as you get in the US so they cannot be compared. Bridgestone do not make a tyre better than C rating in hear

John (Britprius)

 

David if you are going to change all four tyres I would strongly advise you to go up to the 205/55/16 size. There are many resons for this listed in my post linked below, but to give you an idea I chose a couple of tyres at random that would suit your needs, there are others. Even if all of your tyres are not worn out yet and you were only going to change two tyres how much tread life is there left on them compared with the possible saving. If you buy just two tyres you are locked in to keeping that size.

Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance 195/55/16 87v rated B A 68db Price fitted £76-74 Set of 4 £306-96
The same tyre in the larger size has a higher load rating 205/55/16 91v rated B A 68db Price fitted £55-14 set of 4 £220-56
This gives a saving of £86-40

Dunlop Blueresponse 195/55/16 87v rated B A 68db Price fitted £82-26 Set of 4 £329-04
Again the larger tyre has higher load rating 205/55/16 91v B A 68db Price fitted £53-70 Set of 4 £214-80
This gives a saving of £114-24

The 195/55/16 from a supplier I use lists 104 tyre choices "LTC tyres", but some are run flat or winter snow tyres. In the 205/55/16 they list 240 tyres so well more than double the choice. The larger tyre also has a higher load rating.
Let me know your decision and I will then give you further choices.

Low Rolling Resistance replacement tyres (Europe)

John (Britprius)

 

While I agree with your point to a degree the wider tyre will have less load for a given square inch of contact since it has a larger contact patch and less distortion of the tread. It is the distortion or movement of the tread that wastes energy and wares the tread.
The Price difference for the Dunlop tyres "£114" is more than the cost of two tyres in the 205 size at £53-70 each or if your buying two only with the larger size you will get one free and some change. I do however respect your decision.
I think the Dunlops are a good choice so please let us know your impressions and how they perform.

John (Britprius)

 

I moved up to the 205s for numerous reasons (check out the other thread) but I also ran the 195s on the rear with 205s up front with no issues

Much happier now with the 4 Goodyears in a 205. Great tyre in terms of wet grip and increase in mpgs

 

Needed new tires for my 2010 Prius III (63K mi). OEM's were Yoko Ascend's, pumped to max press 44 psi. Was averaging 64 MPG (dashboard) on my daily commute.

Tried to find Mich. Energy Saver A/S's, but availability very limited. The tire guy tried to talk me into Defenders or Premier A/S's.

On the Michelin site the ES A/S is rated with a fuel efficiency of 10 (best), Defender: 8, Premier A/S: 9. Well he got me with the Premiers with their tread ware rating of 640 (over 480 for the ES A/S's, and hey 9 is not much less than 10, right?).

I'm now seeing a drop in my daily commute MPG of over 8% (again as max press 44). I can attribute only about 3% to greater tire diameter with full tread. I'm taking Michelin up on their 30-day promise and holding out for the ES A/S's. We'll see what's the difference between Michelin's 9 and 10 rating for Fuel Efficiency.

Edited 9/11/14: The saga continues - I called the tire guy said I wanted Energy Saver A/S's. He said OK, he'd look for availability - they're really hard to find. He called me back the next day and surprise - he had them. Cool - I go to get them installed. Job done, I go out to my car and they've put on Energy Savers - NOT A/S's! He gave me Mich part #14710 instead of #41536. They're more expensive and tread warranty is 50K instead of 65K. I grumble, he gumbles back, but says he'll exchange them if I'm not happy after a few days (but I'll have to pay another $25 per tire to get the A/S's shipped from somewhere back east to here in So Cal).

I drive away grumpy. I do my "standard" tire mileage test -- a 5-mile freeway portion of my daily commute @ about 70 deg F, engine warmed up, battery charged to nominal, cruise control @ 55 (actually 88 kph), plus a 2 mile neutral coast at the end of the run. I look at the dashboard mileage and the final speed (at the end of the coast). Here are my results:



Well by gum, these ES's are OK so far. One significant advantage - they're rated 91H, max pressure 51 psi (instead of 89T / 44 psi for the A/S's). And of course I pump them up to the max. So I've had enough of this. I'll just keep driving on the ES's. I guess we'll see if the treadwear is really as bad as a lot of folks are saying.

 

Toyo Nanoenergy 2 for Prius IS the best.

 

Waterhouse,

Those Energy Savers are likely a summer tire? In SoCal I think you'll be ok, and sounds like you've got a mpg winner.

I'm likely gonna go with your rejects, the Premier A/S, when the time comes: Energy Saver is not available in 215/45R17. Our OEM's are Michelin Pilots which Michelin site rates a lowly 7 for fuel economy, so hopefully a case of "one man's ceiling is another man's floor".

 

yep