Tesla-Approved Tires
Tires are crucial for your vehicle. Engineered to work seamlessly with Tesla’s electric vehicle drivetrains, Tesla-approved tires are built to optimize performance, safety, reliability and durability. As Lars Moravy, our VP of Vehicle Engineering, puts it, “It is the most important thing on the car and it’s the only thing that touches the ground and it has to do everything. It has to be quiet. It has to be comfortable.”1
Tesla marks our approved tires with a T mark, T0 as the first approved version. Subsequent updates to incorporate new tuning or technology will be marked with T1, T2 and so on.
You can schedule to replace your vehicle’s tires with our approved tires in the Tesla app. Our available approved tires can also be purchased at Tesla Service Centers. Wheel and tire packages can be purchased from the Tesla Shop.
We co-develop each tire with our tire suppliers. As there are vast number of variables to optimize how a tire performs, we utilize virtual development iterations, which uses computer modeling and other tools to evaluate potential tire designs before actually building the tires. This process allows noise, ride, handling and efficiency to be designed and optimized in parallel, shortening the development time and integrating the latest materials available from our tire suppliers.
We evaluate tires across the entire noise spectrum to help create solutions that make our tires as quiet as possible. Acoustic foam in the tires helps dampen and absorb some objectional frequencies to make your ride quiet and smooth so that the noise coming from the road is not passed to the cabin.
The cross section of a tire with acoustic foam
The graph below shows a Model X tire with and without acoustic foam as measured by our Noise team. For reference, 3 dB is a doubling of sound level. Acoustic foam in the tires reduces the peak at 6 dB at 200 Hz. With the reduction, music and conversations in the Model X sound clearer for passengers and the driver. For the Model X driver, the loudness of the tire with foam is significantly lower compared to the tire without foam.
Note: Hertz, Hz, is a unit used to measure sound frequency, or the pitch of a sound. Decibel, dB, is a unit used to measure sound level, or the loudness of a sound. dB(A) refers to a weighting scale that approximates the sensitivity of the human ear after taking into account that human ears hear different frequencies. For reference, levels of highway traffic noise typically range from 70 to 80 dB(A) at a distance of 15 meters from the highway and the noise generated by a conversation between two people standing 1 meter apart is usually in the range of 60 to 65 dB(A).2
Our approved tires are built to support both the acceleration and regenerative deceleration of our vehicles. New generations of our approved tires are designed for improvement in performance of up to 34 km (WLTP est.) in range from the previous versions of the tires.
By selecting the right tires and properly maintaining them, you can maximize your vehicle’s range efficiency. Learn more about range and what you can do to drive efficiently to conserve range.
You should know when to replace them and which tires will work best with your vehicle. Since not all tires are built for electric vehicles, by choosing our approved tires, you can expect good handling, traction and comfort in your drive along with optimized range efficiency. For example, adding new Goodyear Eagle Sport T1 all-season tires to an early Model S equipped with original Eagle RSA2 all-season tires can provide an improvement of up to 34 km (WLTP est.) in range.
Your vehicle’s originally equipped tires depend on the vehicle model and market region. Know the capabilities of your vehicle’s tires and whether they are suited for summer, all-season or winter driving.
Winter Tires
If driving in cold temperatures or on roads where snow or ice may be present, we recommend using winter tires. Winter tires offer the best traction in conditions below 5˚C. For the optimal winter driving experience, we recommend fitting winter wheels and tires just before the season’s first snowfall. Winter tires can be identified by a mountain or snowflake symbol on the tire’s sidewall.
Winter wheel and tire packages are available from the Tesla Shop.
Summer Tires
Summer tires offer the best traction in warmer weather, especially for performance vehicles at higher speeds. Summer tires have reduced traction and increased noise below 5˚C, and for safety reasons, should not be driven on snow or ice.
Tires naturally change over time from the effects of ultraviolet light, extreme temperatures, high loads and environmental conditions.
We recommend rotating your tires every 10,000 kilometers or if the difference of tread depth between two of your tires is 1.5 mm or greater, whichever comes first. Aggressive driving can lead to accelerated tire wear and may require more frequent tire service. To maximize each tire’s tread life, rotating them spreads the wear evenly across all four tires.
Replacing Tires
When you need to replace your tires, we recommend replacing them with our approved tires as they are designed to reduce road noise and optimize handling, comfort and range. Learn more about tire repair and maintenance.
When needed, your vehicle will detect uneven tire wear and inform you from the vehicle touchscreen when inspection or service is needed. To schedule and replace your vehicle’s tires with our approved tires, follow these steps:
- Open the Tesla app.
- Tap ‘Service.’
- Select ‘Request Service.’
- Tap ‘Tires & Wheels.’
- Tap ‘Tires.’
- Tap 'Replacement Tires.’
- Follow the on-screen prompts to provide additional information.