Better tires for winter, same range

We’re now entering our second year of owning the iX, which means the start of our second winter with the car. Last year we got through the winter without any problems, but the car just never felt particularly comfortable with poor grip. So that’s at the top of my list of things to do before the snow starts flying this year.

The iX comes with all-wheel drive as standard thanks to its dual-motor configuration. That’s a big advantage when the roads are covered in snow, but the BMW still has some key advantages that counteract low-grip driving. The biggest problem? Weight. The iX weighs about 5,700 pounds, and even the most advanced stability control and braking systems can’t compensate for the mass.

55

The other big problem was the tires. Goodyear’s Eagle Touring all-season tires offer a good mix of grip, low noise and low rolling resistance for everyday driving. While they proved consistent in more difficult conditions, they weren’t exactly outstanding. I wanted something that gave a little more confidence.

I dealt with a similar situation with our previous electric vehicle, a Tesla Model Y, by switching to a dedicated set of winter tires for the winter months. With the iX I wanted to save myself the hassle of changing wheels and tires twice a year.

When I learned about the Nokian Remedy WRG5, it seemed like a perfect solution. Nokian describes this tire as an “all-weather” tire that can be used on wet or dry roads all year round without any problems. But it offers a more aggressive tire compound and tread pattern to cope with the low grip conditions Nokian winter tires are known for.

The Nokian (left) compared to the Goodyear (right)

The company was kind enough to offer a set for testing, but there was a problem: Nokian doesn’t make the Remedy WRG5 in the 235/60R20 size that the iX xDrive50 runs on as standard. The closest was 255/55R20, much wider and slightly shorter.

Knowing that the iX was designed to accommodate tires up to 275mm wide for the M60 trim, I knew fitting 255 tires in the fenders wouldn’t be a problem. There is also a concern that a wider tire could actually make winter grip worse, as conventional wisdom is that narrow tires are better. However, I have been assured by tire engineers in the past that – in most non-racing situations – wider is still better, even in a low grip environment.

So I placed the order and the tires actually fit the iX without any problems. What was surprising was how severe the tire wear already was with the standard Goodyear tires. The two rear tires were noticeably more worn than the front ones, not so much that they needed replacing, but certainly so much that much of their finer tread was gone. My tire tread gauge shows that after 12,500 there was still about 1/4 inch of tread left. Most experts recommend replacing tires as soon as they become less than 4/32 of an inch in rain or winter conditions. So it’s not nice to see them so worn out after just a year of driving.

The old tires. You can see that the rear tires (left) were significantly more worn than the front tires (right), probably because the iX transfers more power to the rear wheels.

This is despite the fact that this thing is primarily driven for occasional commuting and relaxed road trips. BMW actually doesn’t have recommended tire rotation intervals, but if you have a jack and the necessary tools, I’d suggest doing it every 5,000 miles or so.

Regardless, given the shallower tread depth of these two tires, I was happy to switch to the more aggressive Nokian before the snow started flying.

Noise and range

Aside from the size issues, I was also concerned that these additional slats would result in more noise on dry asphalt, so I took some shots in the car with the old tires before replacing them. On the same stretch of dry asphalt, the Nokian models were consistently within one decibel of Goodyear’s.

And then there is the question of range. Surely a more winter-friendly tread and tire compound results in lower efficiency, right? Initial tests actually indicate the opposite. On a 220-mile highway test route, the iX actually used slightly less energy than driving the Goodyear on days with similar temperatures (between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit), averaging 2.7 miles per kWh for the Nokian and 2, 6 at Nokian Good years.

Such real-world range tests are inconsistent at best, so I’m not claiming that the Nokian models are actually more efficient. However, that allayed my fears that I would see a drop in the order of 10 to 15 percent that I have seen in the past when running a dedicated winter tire.

Finally, I was also a little worried about how far the speedometer would be, since the outside diameter of the new tires is slightly smaller than the old one. I had done the calculation using online calculators, but was very pleased that the GPS-measured difference in highway speed was less than 1 mph.

Restart

When we ran all of these tests, we realized something was wrong with the iX: the user-friendly Driving Assistance Professional system wasn’t working. There were no errors or warnings, it just didn’t work on the highway.

We also noticed that the car refused to accept any remote commands. The iX had already proven inconsistent when it came to handling preconditioning requests or providing information about charging status and the like. But now the matter was dead for the MyBMW app.

Photo by: InsideEVs

The iX’s software experience is mostly good, but not perfect.

I was a little worried that there was something wrong with the car’s onboard modem, but after some Googling, my wife read about other people solving similar situations by forcing the SUV to restart itself. The process isn’t quite as simple as the old three-finger salute that Windows users are familiar with when rebooting, but it’s not far off: Triple-tap the engine start/stop button to enter to enter diagnostic mode, then press and hold the Volume Down button for 30 seconds.

A few moments later the car was back online and driving happily and hands-free down the highway.

Now it’s time to see how the new tires cope with the white stuff – assuming we get some this year.