Winter tyres &wheel question

[OysterSkipper]

Hi All

I have an Enyaq Sportline Plus 85x on order for delivery some time next year. In the meantime I will continue to drive my Kodiaq Sportline which I have a set of winter wheels and tyres for (conti winter contact with about 6k miles on them). Can anyone let me know if “standard” SUV winter tyres will be ok for the Enyaq? I’m fairly sure that the Kodiaq five bolt wheels will fit (the 20” Vega’s seem identical to the ones on my current car) but wonder about the extra weight and torque of EV’s. Also does anyone have experience of jacking up an Enyaq - two plus tonnes seems a bit intimidating to me. Please let me know your winter tyre/wheel solutions for the Enyaq - I live in the north east of Scotland and road conditions here get quite harsh in the darker months.

[Dav00]

Generally speaking, I'd say they are std tyres ok, some EV-friendly tyres can be better: rolling resistance, shoulder design, quietness, etc. But having a set of existing tyres with only 6k, not sure I'd go and look for something else.
Which WinterContact? Anyway, as long as the load and speed index complies with Skoda's specs, I don't see why those in the 850-870 P range wouldn't be a very good fit.
WinterContact were in my top two shortlist for the winter tyres set.

[Aragorn]

"EV Tyres" are verging on a scam.

Any of the advertised features are beneficial to any car, and all tyre manufacturers have to balance off the various traits against each other to make a good tyre. Low rolling resistance is often acheived by giving you less tread for instance. Great for marketing, but not so great for the end user who has less tyre to use.

End of the day, for a winter tyre the most important factors (for me at least) are their grip and handling characteristics in poor weather. If they use 10% more "fuel" as a result, so be it...

My car came on the Proteus 19's but i bought a set of 20" Vegas for it as i preferred the look. I then kept the 19's for winter use. They now have one pair of Goodyear Ultragrip Gen1 and one pair of Michelin Alpin5's on them. Just normal "SUV" spec tyres.

The Kodiaq Vegas are slightly different, both in shape and fitment, however they're close enough and should work fine. Weight wise theres not a huge amount in it really... The heaviest Kodiaqs are circa 1800kgs.

Main thing to check is that the tyre size is similar though. The 19" fitment is 235/55r19 on the Enyaq, it seems the Kodiaq uses a smaller 235/50r19 tyre which means they probably arent suitable due to the smaller diameter.

[Pea]

Please note that your Enyaq Sportline Plus 85x will have wider rear tires:
235/50R20 100T 8Jx20 ET45 Front
255/45R20 103T 9Jx20 ET42 Rear

[Dav00]

"EV Tyres" are verging on a scam.

More of a marketing move, eventually that message will disappear.
But there is some some underlying element. There are thing which were not so relevant and not necessarily mainstream in the technical design, until recently: noise for instance. I can't remember many winter tyres with 69-70db level of noise declared, historically they were fairly noisy, fitted on noisier cars. What was the point of and the demand for spending money on R&D to manufacture a quiet tyre for a '99 Diesel Jetta? Same for rolling resistance, finding a design without comprising grip wasn't really a requirement. Get steel wheels, put those things on, ignore noise and consumption as long as you get grip.
I would - I didn't - compromise on grip and handling but, all other things being equal, I'd prefer something quieter. I didn't even notice a huge differece in price, probably because tyres of this size are already very expensive.

[Enyaq85x SL]

Regarding jacking it's no more difficult to jack than a normal car just make sure you use the marked jacking points.
The rule of thumb when jacking is the jack needs to be rated for 3/4 of the vehicle weight to be safe.
Your not jacking the whole car, just one corner so most of the weight stays on the ground.
An average scissor jack is rated to 2.5t so would be more than ample.

The different widths of wheels isn't really relevant.
As long as what you fit has the same rolling radius (+-5%) then there is no issue fitting 4 wheels in winter that are the same width.

[Aragorn]

More of a marketing move, eventually that message will disappear.
But there is some some underlying element. There are thing which were not so relevant and not necessarily mainstream in the technical design, until recently: noise for instance. I can't remember many winter tyres with 69-70db level of noise declared, historically they were fairly noisy, fitted on noisier cars. What was the point of and the demand for spending money on R&D to manufacture a quiet tyre for a '99 Diesel Jetta? Same for rolling resistance, finding a design without comprising grip wasn't really a requirement. Get steel wheels, put those things on, ignore noise and consumption as long as you get grip.
I would - I didn't - compromise on grip and handling but, all other things being equal, I'd prefer something quieter. I didn't even notice a huge differece in price, probably because tyres of this size are already very expensive.

There are many cars where engine noise is very well controlled, and tyre/wind noise is already the main component at higher speeds. You'll find thats the case in most executive/luxury cars. So tyre manufacturers already have these things to juggle. Tyre reviews have for years compared rolling resistance and will mark down tyres which score badly in any category. The simple fact is you cant have it all. Its a balancing act between all the elements, and the top tyre makers already do a very good job. With an "EV tyre" all they're doing is shifting that balance a little in a particular way. But instead of marketing it as what it is: Giving you a slightly quieter or less draggy tyre, in exchange for less tyre life or poorer traction... They instead pretend its an EV specific thing...

Many of the "low rolling resistance" EV tyres come with only 6mm of tread for instance. Thats because the more tread, the more it moves around which causes drag. So by giving you less tread they can claim better rolling resistance figures. Ofcourse, if you fitted an 8mm tread tyre and wore it down to 6mm you'd also have improved rolling resistance as it wore down. And its not like they made the 6mm tyre cheaper as a result, instead they made it more expensive because its a special "EV Tyre"... Hence my view that they're verging on scams.

The bridgestones on my enyaq also wore horribly, the shoulders are very weak and wore away extremely quickly. Infact the reason i ended up with two missmatched pairs of winter tyres is that I discovered the (original bridgestone) rear tyres were destroyed on the inner shoulders so had to rush out and replace them, and bought the goodyears. Then in preperation for this winter i picked up the Michelins for a very good price, and they tend to score a little better than the goodyears too.