Well...... I need to ask you 3 other questions first. Will you be driving in snow? Do you drive a lot during the winter? Do you drive an electric car? If you answered yes to any of the questions I would strongly suggest equipping your car with "Winter Tires". Over the last few years technology in Snow Tires has really changed those tires to Winter Tires. For years aggressive tread patterns with a lot of sipes were the design of Snow Tires. Resent developments in rubber have allow tire manufactures to make a rubber that stays soft when it gets below 45ºF. Why does this matter? If the rubber stays soft it allows the tire to grip the road better in cold weather. This means you have better braking and handling while driving in the winter. The rubber in an All-Season Tire gets hard when it gets below 45°F which leads to longer stopping distance and decreased cornering ability.
Don't get me wrong, there are some great All-Season Tires out there that perform well in the winter. They have a more aggressive tread pattern and have softer rubber to allow for good handling in cold weather. One of the tires we like that is like this is the Continental ExtremeContact™ DWS06. It works better than most All-Season Tires in 2-4 inches of snow. Another great All-Season to look at is Nokian Tyres One. The awesome thing about it is it does not lose its siping as it wears. If you do a lot of driving in the winter or snow considering a tire like these All-Seasons or installing dedicated Snow Tires adds a larger level of safety to your drive.
Now that I made the case for the first 2 questions I want to dive into the electric car question. Electric cars are heavy and are usually equipped with All-Season Tires that have almost solid blocks of tread. The reason behind using tire like this the weight of the car causes the tires to wear fast. If it has an almost solid rib of rubber the tire will have a longer life. This is great for places where the worst weather is just rain. It does absolutely nothing for snow driving. There are videos every where of electric vehicles sliding off the roads. Dan and I made a video showing what a New and Worn All-Season and Winter Tire look like and why you might want to consider putting dedicated snow tires on your car. It is plain to see in the video which tires will have better traction in the cold and snow.Check out the video below.
