Choice of tyres

No matter which tire you install, you're going to experience some wheelspin with the Kona Electric. Nothing, however will be as bad as the Nexens. If you care about range, you'll want to aim for tires with low rolling resistance. I installed Nokian WR G4 all weather tires because I live in the Northeast (U.S.) and I wanted a tire that I could use all year round. I like them. They have better traction (but you can still spin them), they're quieter (though up to 60mph tire noise dominates, above that it's wind noise), they have more traction and handle better, they're decent in the snow, and they are low rolling resistance. They're a good compromise tire. You'll find lots of opinions about tires on this forum, including some who are perfectly happy with the Nexens. If you enjoy spirited driving you owe yourself a tire upgrade. The Kona is quick, has a low center of gravity and amazing torque that you'll want to enjoy. The good news about wheelspin is that you'll win the traffic light grand prix even with partial throttle. I had some fun with a hopped up Nissan 370Z - turbo lag is a bear

 

I'd be surprised if most Kona EV drivers don't learn to ease up a bit on the initial launch. I used Eco mode for a few months which reduces the accelerator aggressiveness and now don't have a problem in any mode. I think it was due to coming from a 1.2 turbo ICE which needed a kick in the guts to get the turbo on boost.

 

The Nexens are NOT sub-par tires, but the forums always throw up a few leadfoot moaners who can’t drive to the conditions, then blame the car/tires etc. I used my Nexens for 10 months / 5000 miles, and they briefly slipped once, in heavy rain starting off from the lights. They are marketed as a premium, high-performance tire, and are the best for range. Like the vast majority of Kona owners, I couldn’t fault them dry or wet, for cornering or handling, and wouldn’t hesitate to replace with more of the same. Your choice.
Having said that, when my Plugin Prius needed better tires, I found I could move the near-new Nexens to the Prius (with outstanding economy results), leaving me free to put my favourite brand, Michelins, on the Kona, which now has PS4’s.
Comments? Primacy 4’s and PS4’s are minor variations of a main-stream, quality choice for everyday use. The PS4 is slightly stickier, doesn’t last quite as long. They are on a par for range and noise, with the PS4 being 3dB quieter on smooth asphalt than the Nexen, the same dB on coarse chip.
I run my PS4’s at 40psi for a best economy /comfort compromise. Ride comfort is unchanged. Economy is down fractionally - about 2%. You WILL need a higher than standard tire pressure to achieve this, unlike the LRR Nexens for which higher pressure made no difference. I would expect the Primacy 4 to be highly similar, not as good as the Nexens for range.
Handling is outstanding, better feel, grip feels endless. Only track tires would be better.
The PS4’s are the best there is in an everyday tire, with no downside...

 

I've never spun the fronts unless I *wanted* to, such as a quick grip
test in a snow patch to get an idea of what's under me. ECO gives a
delightfully "slow bottom" curve which is ideal for fine control, and
takes nothing away from top-end power if/when you want it.

Perhaps perusing this could help.

_H*

 

The only time I have spun the tires is when a traffic light turns green, I am crossing the white crosswalk markings, and it is wet out. I just pay attention a little bit, and let up until I am through the intersection, and I am fine.

 

I replaced my factory Nexen NPriz AH8 tires with Michelin CrossClimate. So far I am very impressed with the CrossClimates - smooth, quiet and very grippy.
I live in Canada so the "all weather" tire makes sense up here.

 

It's very rare that I spin my tires and I have not noticed any appreciable issues with the tires on wet roads. I do not expect the OEM tires to be particularly long-lived. I will buy some higher quality tires eventually but I will continue to drive these tires confidently until the tread wear dictates otherwise. You're going to find a lot of scuttlebutt about the subpar quality of the Nexens but I'm not convinced personally that it's much more than tire-snobbery.

 

I changed my stock tyres to Primacy 4 ST a few days after I took delivery of my car. The stock tyre is Nfera SU1 just like yours. One of the reason for changing is because my regular tyre shop gave me a decent trade in value for the Nexen. Secondly, I have very good experience with Primacy 3 (predecessor of Primacy 4) in my previous cars.

Due to the softer side walls in the Pri 4, I do feel it is a "softer" ride compared to the Nexen. It is also marginally quieter in general but still gets noisy at highway speed which I believe is due to insufficient soundproofing on the car itself.

I keep my pressure at 34 psi cold. I have not spun the wheel even when accelerating harder than usual on both the Pri 4 and stock tyre. I am consistently getting about 7-8 km/kWh on city roads but unfortunately don't have any meaningful numbers to compare for my Nexen.

Driven 600 km so far. I will have to wait and see how it performs a few months later.

The stock tyre is NA is not Nfera judging from the thread pattern, so the reviews we often see on YouTube may not necessary reflect our own experience on Nfera. Nfera SU1 is categorised as a high performance summer tyre in my location.

 

You may not have seen this SpeakEV thread, which has a Nexen section:
https://www.speakev.com/threads/1-year-in-44k-miles-71k-km%E2%80%99s-how%E2%80%99s-the-kona-holding-up.143157/

 

My noise observation was from repeated tests taking care to keep conditions the same, same car, app, phone mount, same roadway. First the Nexen data was 56dB for smooth seal, 63dB for coarse chip. Then the PS4 data was 53dB smooth, 63dB for coarse chip. I wasn't looking for absolute accuracy, but comparative accuracy.

As for the Primacy 4 reports, what I read on that also said that the final drive ratio was going to be changed to the same as the e-Niro is now i.e. higher, and acceleration would be a second slower. This would make the car more economical, give more range. The devil is in the detail...
There is no forum post anywhere that suggests there is an alternate tyre to the Nexen that gives better range. If there was, Hyundai would have used it from the beginning, such is the EV community obsession with range.

This is from a 50km run city run a few days ago, round trip, 50kph limit

 

If you drive in ECO mode and don't drive aggressive, the Nexens are just fine.. I will probably go with Nexens again when my tires are worn as range is very important to me. There is a reason why Hyundai picked the Nexens.. Best of all, the Nexens are also available at Walmart for a very reasonable price.

 

I am also fine with my Nexens. So much so, that I bought a 2nd used set (almost new for $80) for when my current ones wear out. I drive almost exclusively in ECO, only slip slightly (if I punch it too much) when taking off in wet conditions. But they handle just fine, and I keep the PSI at 39. So far, at 16K kms, very little wear and very even. Will be rotating at 20K kms.

 

If getting good range is a priority, then forget about "making use of the available torque". I enjoy how peppy the car is, and during the first week of ownership I had fun with the fast acceleration, but that novelty wore off, and now efficiency is more often on my mind. Unless you're hammering the accelerator, the stock tires will be great. If you're hammering the accelerator, I suspect that your range will suffer so much from the aggressive driving that any difference in tire rolling resistance will be unnoticeable.