Well, bad news everyone.
TLDR: Turns out, Tire wear is a problem. Tires expensive. But tires expensive + cheap charging == less than driving Hybrid
The short version is we got a flat tire on the way to the airport the other day (picking up a nephew who is coming to stay with us for a week). And as you may remember, this vehicle doesn't have a spare. And it was leaking pretty quickly too. I was alerted by the TMPS (I didn't see us hit anything), at about 23psi right when we'd reached the cell phone waiting lot for the airport. By the time I'd gotten out the "tire mobility kit" (sealant and a 12v pump), we were down to 2psi.
But, it totally worked. Got us home just fine.
The next day took it to the local tire shop, and asked for a flat repair. First bad news... wasn't repairable. Second bad news, tires worn enough that single tire replacement on the awd vehicle wasn't possible (over the 3/32" size difference). Third bad news, expensive tires.
Long story made shorter, after a series of phone calls, with the tire shop, Hyundai dealership, and tire company each pointing fingers at each other, we find that new OEM tires, even of the same model do not get tread wear warranties. Kumho (the tire company) did offer us a "good faith" discount on a 2 of our tires because they were worn more than expected at 11398 miles (down to 4/32 and 5/32"). But, it had to be done through either discount tire, or the dealership, and would take days. The location is important, because our vehicle was ~30 miles from there, and had a flat that was already off the rim and couldn't be repaired.
Also, I read a lot of reports of other owners having poor experiences with the Kuhmo Crugen HP71 tires not lasting. So despite those being the cheapest replacement, I opted to replace them with Hankook iON Evo's that cost a bit more. Partially because of the reputation/etc, but also partially because of the whole "once bitten twice shy" sort of thing.
The OEM Kumho's lasted an absurdly short 11398 miles. The Ioniq 9 is heavy, yes. But not "that" heavy, at 5900lbs or so. And also, most of the time I've seen tire wear from EV's due to people driving aggressively... and the Ioniq 9 is not a performance vehicle. It has 303hp, and a ~6.5 second 0-60 that was rarely even gotten close to achieving in the wild. And I had always kept an eye on tire pressure, and had rotated them.
Given, the tires weren't actually fully worn out, and the case of the puncture making it so I couldn't just replace 1 tire is a separate issue. But with the remaining treadlife, if you'd math'd it out, we still would have maybe barely reached 20k miles on them.
Going from tread wear warranties, the Hankooks would still cost more per mile, but I've seen a lot more reports of those actually reaching close to, or their actual tread wear warranty (which matches up with their expected tread wear rating, as its UTQG - Tread Wear is 600, vs 500 for the Kumhos).
The funny part though is that the tires were $1850 for 4. And... if you math that out with the cost of charging vs the cost of fueling an equivalent sized hybrid vehicle like the Grand Highlander/etc... we're still the same as, or cheaper in terms of running costs. So, while I"m not happy about it, and was not expecting this expense right now, its still "mostly acceptable".
But man, I hope these ion Evos last a bit better. Or I might be tempted to get some non-EV replacement tires and eat some range and noise downsides, to get more tire life.
TLDR: Turns out, Tire wear is a problem. Tires expensive. But tires expensive + cheap charging == less than driving Hybrid
The short version is we got a flat tire on the way to the airport the other day (picking up a nephew who is coming to stay with us for a week). And as you may remember, this vehicle doesn't have a spare. And it was leaking pretty quickly too. I was alerted by the TMPS (I didn't see us hit anything), at about 23psi right when we'd reached the cell phone waiting lot for the airport. By the time I'd gotten out the "tire mobility kit" (sealant and a 12v pump), we were down to 2psi.
But, it totally worked. Got us home just fine.
The next day took it to the local tire shop, and asked for a flat repair. First bad news... wasn't repairable. Second bad news, tires worn enough that single tire replacement on the awd vehicle wasn't possible (over the 3/32" size difference). Third bad news, expensive tires.
Long story made shorter, after a series of phone calls, with the tire shop, Hyundai dealership, and tire company each pointing fingers at each other, we find that new OEM tires, even of the same model do not get tread wear warranties. Kumho (the tire company) did offer us a "good faith" discount on a 2 of our tires because they were worn more than expected at 11398 miles (down to 4/32 and 5/32"). But, it had to be done through either discount tire, or the dealership, and would take days. The location is important, because our vehicle was ~30 miles from there, and had a flat that was already off the rim and couldn't be repaired.
Also, I read a lot of reports of other owners having poor experiences with the Kuhmo Crugen HP71 tires not lasting. So despite those being the cheapest replacement, I opted to replace them with Hankook iON Evo's that cost a bit more. Partially because of the reputation/etc, but also partially because of the whole "once bitten twice shy" sort of thing.
The OEM Kumho's lasted an absurdly short 11398 miles. The Ioniq 9 is heavy, yes. But not "that" heavy, at 5900lbs or so. And also, most of the time I've seen tire wear from EV's due to people driving aggressively... and the Ioniq 9 is not a performance vehicle. It has 303hp, and a ~6.5 second 0-60 that was rarely even gotten close to achieving in the wild. And I had always kept an eye on tire pressure, and had rotated them.
Given, the tires weren't actually fully worn out, and the case of the puncture making it so I couldn't just replace 1 tire is a separate issue. But with the remaining treadlife, if you'd math'd it out, we still would have maybe barely reached 20k miles on them.
Going from tread wear warranties, the Hankooks would still cost more per mile, but I've seen a lot more reports of those actually reaching close to, or their actual tread wear warranty (which matches up with their expected tread wear rating, as its UTQG - Tread Wear is 600, vs 500 for the Kumhos).
The funny part though is that the tires were $1850 for 4. And... if you math that out with the cost of charging vs the cost of fueling an equivalent sized hybrid vehicle like the Grand Highlander/etc... we're still the same as, or cheaper in terms of running costs. So, while I"m not happy about it, and was not expecting this expense right now, its still "mostly acceptable".
But man, I hope these ion Evos last a bit better. Or I might be tempted to get some non-EV replacement tires and eat some range and noise downsides, to get more tire life.
