Severe performance hit when replacing 1/4 OEM tires

[Daklein]

The GOM and mi/kwh numbers will change proportional to the (front) tires diameter. The computer in the car only knows revolutions count, not actual distance. The one new tire could be a little bit larger, slightly, that the previous ones. Put them on the rear. Tire rubber will get harder with more heat cycles, although tires on a leaf hardly get hot. And the new tire probably has more rolling resistance than the OEM tires. So all of those reasons, and maybe alignment, would tend to show lower mi/kwh.

Different mi/kwh could also just be normal variation.

IMHO, the upfront cost for expensive tires is never going to pay back in electric savings, and a couple percent change in range maybe is not worth it either. Ie: paying $300 per tire for a hopefully very good rolling resistance tire, vs. close to $100 for one that's also allegedly good rolling resistance (Goodyear Assurance Fuel-Max), I'm on my second set of GDY Fuel-Max tires now. My car has the 16" wheels, so that size is usually cheaper, I think I've paid only $70-100 per tire.

If the cheap walmart tire was all that was available at the time, that's what you needed to get back on the road. Buy the tires you want going forward and sell that one on craigslist/FB for $20.

 

[Joeaverage]

WM (and Sam's Club) might sell crap tires but they also sell good tires. Your choice, your budget. I've bought several sets of Michelins for example over the years there. Long life, good traction, low noise - all the important characteristics of a quality tire. Also they use anti-seize and a torque wrench for the lugnut tightening vs the other tire shop in town that tries to convince me that their dog bone attachment gets the torque just right - when it clearly overshoots the correct torque by a significant amount. I've gone home and loosened the other shop's work and they can miss the torque by 30 ft-lbs or more. I loosen and retorque with my own wrench. Once I showed up with my own toque wrench and asked them to just seat the lugnuts and I would final torque them myself. They thought it was funny but did what I asked. 25+ years ago I had another shop torque the lugnuts on so tight that it apparently warped the hubs and the car was never smooth again. We're talking so tight they must have been close to snapping. I couldn't prove it so I had to eat that problem and I didn't have the money back then to repair it either. So - I'm really picky.

I've also bought Bridgestones, Coopers and Generals at WM/Sam's. Tires that aren't fancy but did their job well enough on a low cost local use car.

Edited to add: you store location may vary. We have two WalMarts. I wouldn't trust the first one to put air in my wheelbarrow tire. The other one seems to be reliably good. I went to the first one to have my tires rotated and balanced. They didn't do the work. I was watching them and they didn't do the work. And they wanted to argue. Now years later, the personnel have all changed but I still won't go there if I can help it. The whole store has always been a little shabby.