Dedicated EV tire: Michelin Primacy 4 vs Michelin e.Primacy

Michelin Primacy 4 vs Michelin e.Primacy: With the major shift towards electric vehicles in place of hydrocarbons powered ones, the main requirements for tires are also changing. Previously we have covered the Michelin e.Primacy as it was specifically designed for the electric vehicle market while boasting to be the first carbon neutral tire out there in the market. From the press reports, We saw a major improvement in rolling resistance (label A) while a drawback in wet braking (label B). e.Primacy was launched in late 2020 while the Primacy 4 was launched in 2017. Let’s have a quick comparison of Primacy 4 against e.Primacy and see how well they fare against each other.

Results

Results below were taken from the 2022 ViBilagare Summer Tyre Test. A total of 10 tires were tested this year. The graph below shows the comparison between Michelin Primacy 4 vs Michelin e.Primacy based on the relevant performance category. The Michelin Primacy 4 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.

Note that for subjective comfort evaluation, we equate 1 point as 5%. Hence for example if tire A is graded 7 while tire B is graded 6, A is better than B by 5%. The natural scaling does not really make sense in evaluation whereby the max number is 5. The tire size of interest is 205/55R16 which is a common tire size for Volkswagen Golf (2018) and the Toyota Corolla Altis (2018). You can check out our latest tire size table for more information.

Rolling Resistance

We will start with the main requirement of electric vehicles which is to have a low rolling resistance tire which will enable a longer range. With an A label rating, e.Primacy did not disappoint by having a -2.23 kg/ton advantage in the rolling resistance coefficient relative to Primacy 4. Even though the e.Primacy had an outstanding rolling resistance, this did not translate effectively into fuel savings as the rolling resistance from tires only attributes 20% of the car’s overall resistance. The e.Primacy end up with a fuel consumption of 5.13 liter/100km while the Primacy 4 has a 5.29 liter/100km fuel consumption value.

e.Primacy :

• +39.5% in rolling resistance
• +3.1% in fuel economy

Wet

Safety has always been the main theme when it comes to the need for wet performances. In objective wet braking, the Primacy 4 managed to out brake the e.Primacy by 5m ! With this distance, you can fit a Golf in between and still have some in between spaces. We know from the labels there is a 1 level difference but the margin was still huge and worth noting.

The similar trend continues in the wet handling criteria as the Primacy 4 was 3.3 seconds faster around the wet track. Things were also bad in aquaplaning as the e.Primacy has a slip speed deficit of 9.7 km/h in straight aquaplaning while having a deficit of 4.9 km/h in lateral aquaplaning. As the e.Primacy has a 6.1mm tread depth compared to the 8mm of Primacy 4, it is not surprising why it is doing so bad in aquaplaning. Due to the lower amount of void volume, e.Primacy was unable to dissipate water faster compared to tires having a much higher tread depth. Overall, Primacy 4 is absolutely dominant against the e.Primacy in wet performances.

e.Primacy :

• -13.8% in wet braking
• -4.6% in wet handling (lap time)
• -11.4% in straight aquaplaning
• -8.3% in curve aquaplaning

Dry

After the total domination in wet, e.Primacy retains some of its pride by performing quite well in dry performances. It was almost on par with the Primacy 4 by stopping only 0.3m behind in dry braking. While in dry handling, they were also really close as 0.6 seconds separated them apart with Primacy 4 being slightly faster. Overall, both tires are neck and neck in dry and they were only separated with a small margin.

e.Primacy :

• -0.8% in dry braking
• -0.6% in dry handling (lap time)

Noise & Comfort

Both tires were ranked 3/5 in comfort while e.Primacy was +1 point better in subjective noise with a rating of 3/5 compared to the 2/5 rating of Primacy 4.

e.Primacy :

• +5% in subjective noise
• 0% in comfort

Price

Michelin being Michelin with no surprises as it commands one of the highest priced tires in the market. Both Michelin were the top 3 most expensive tires in the test. However it was surprising to see that the e.Primacy was priced €8 more compared to the Primacy 4. Maybe the new wow factor of an electric vehicle dedicated tireline was somehow contributing to this price positioning.

Tire size: 205/55 R16

Primacy 4: €100

e.Primacy:  €108

Difference: +8% more expensive for e.Primacy.

Summary

The e.Primacy came with only 1 focus in mind which is to be extremely good in rolling resistance. This was achieved as it was the best rolling resistance tire in the test. However the drawback in wet was clearly shown in the test. From the overall test results, Primacy 4 is the clear winner against the e.Primacy. From our point of view, there is no reason why a non-electric vehicle should even consider using the e.Primacy. If you are an electric car owner, the trade off between having a slightly longer range vs wet performances should be properly evaluated when choosing between these 2 tires.