Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin X-Ice Snow

Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin X-Ice Snow: All season tires have always been the go to tires for the American market and this segment has been well established across the years. It is such a popular segment that Michelin has 3 types of all season products to serve the market. We have previously covered the head to head comparison of Michelin Cross Climate 2 vs Michelin Defender T+H & it was a total domination by the Cross Climate 2.

We would now shift to the Ultra High Performance all season segment with Michelin’s Pilot Sport All Season 4 against the Studless segment of Michelin X-Ice Snow. Pilot Sport All Season 4 was launched in 2020 and covers low aspect ratio tires from 16″ to 22″ while the X-Ice Snow was also launched in the same year with the main focus on extreme cold weather conditions (<23°F)

Results

Results below were taken from the Tyre Review’s “Michelin Pilot Sport 4S vs Pilot Sport AllSeason 4 vs CrossClimate 2 vs X-Ice Snow! Tested and Rated” test. A total of 4 tires were tested this time around with 4 different segments (max performance summer, ultra high performance all season, grand touring all season & studless tires).

The graph below shows the comparison between Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin X-Ice Snow based on the relevant performance category. The Pilot Sport All Season 4 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark. Note that for the handling evaluation, lap times were used as an objective gauge to determine how well the tire performs. The handling lap times are usually correlated to the subjective ratings most of the time.

As X-Ice snow has the elusive 3 peak mountain logo, Tyre Review naturally included snow & ice in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including acceleration, braking & handling were evaluated. The test was performed at Keweenaw Research Center in Michigan for snow performances while the summer test was performed in South Carolina.

The tire size of interest is 245/40R18 which is a common tire size for Audi A4 & Jaguar Xe. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle is a Tesla 3 with a track mode setting and 100% rear wheel drive mode.

Wet

The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. With regards to our comparison, Pilot Sport All Season 4 being an all season tire was dominating in wet braking compared to X-Ice Snow with a 51 feet (15.5 m) advantage in braking distance.

While in wet handling, Pilot Sport All Season 4 dominance was clear for everyone as it was over 7 seconds faster in lap time against X-Ice Snow. Both margins in wet braking and wet handling are expected as wet is a natural target conflict in ice. Ice being the main requirement for studless tires, naturally you will observe such big differences. Overall, Pilot Sport All Season 4 has a big advantage over X-Ice Snow in wet performances.

X-Ice Snow :

• -35% in wet braking
• -26% in wet handling (lap time)

Dry

As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. Being an all season tire with a harder compound, the all season Pilot Sport All Season 4 also dominated the dry category as this is one of studless main weakness points. Pilot Sport All Season 4 managed to brake 35 feet (11m) earlier compared to X-Ice Snow from a speed of 62 mph (100km/h) down to 3mph (5km/h).

In dry handling, the differences are much lower compared to dry handling as Pilot Sport All Season 4 was only 3.7 seconds faster per lap than X-Ice Snow. Overall, it is clear that the all season Pilot Sport All Season 4 was the clear winner in dry.

X-Ice Snow :

• -22% in dry braking
• -5% in dry handling (lap time)

Rolling Resistance

When it comes to all season & studless tires, rolling resistance is definitely not at the highest priority as the engineer has to handle the most important winter vs summer target conflict. However with the sustainability topic being more prevalent, rolling resistance has been widely used as a competitive marketing tool as it could be easily seen in the label values.

Due to the multitude of target conflicts all season tire have to face, the rolling resistance of Pilot Sport All Season 4 is much worse at a coefficient value of 9.1 N/kN while the X-Ice Snow surprisingly had the best rolling resistance coefficient value among other the other 3 segments with a value of 7.8N/kN .

X-Ice Snow :

• +17% in rolling resistance

Snow

X-Ice Snow possesses the elusive 3 peak mountain logo while Pilot Sport All Season 4 is without. As the studless main requirement revolves around ice, we are unable to show its clear strength as it was not tested. From an expectation point of view, we would definitely expect the studless X-Ice Snow to outperform the all season Pilot Sport All Season 4 solely based on segmentation reasons.

As previously expected, X-Ice Snow dominated across all snow tests. It stopped 10 feet (3 m) earlier than Pilot Sport All Season 4 from a speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) to 5mph (8 km/h). It was also extremely good when it came to snow traction as it took 1 second less to accelerate from (8 km/h) 5 to 20 mph (32 km/h). While it was also quicker in lap time (15.6 seconds !). Overall, X-Ice Snow is clearly the better snow tire

X-Ice Snow :

• +29% in snow braking
• +57% in snow traction
• +19% in snow handling (lap time)

UTQG rating

We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. Below are the UTQG values of both of the tirelines.

Brand	Tireline	Size	Tread Wear	Traction	Temperature
Michelin	Pilot Sport All Season 4	All	540	AA	A
Michelin	X-Ice Snow	All	–	–	–

As X-Ice Snow is a 3 peak mountain logo tire, it is not required to display UTQG values. However a rough indication based on mileage warranty could give us a hint on both tires wear performance. Based on the data provided by Tire Rack, mileage warranty for X-Ice Snow is 40,000 miles while Pilot Sport All Season 4 is 45,000 miles. Overall we have reasonable expectations that Pilot Sport All Season 4 would have a slight advantage in mileage compared to X-Ice Snow.

For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.

Price

Being the undisputed technology leader, we would expect Michelin to command the highest priced tire in the market. The X-Ice Snow was found to be 45 dollars more expensive than Pilot Sport All Season 4.

Tire size: 245/40R18

Pilot Sport All Season 4 : $232

X-Ice Snow : $277

Difference: +16% more expensive for X-Ice Snow.

Summary

Overall, Pilot Sport All Season 4 had a big advantage in dry ,wet & mileage performances as expected for an all season tire. X-Ice Snow dominated in the snow category and it is expected to do the same in Ice but this was not tested. Due to the segmentation differences, there is no clear winner in this case. If you need a cold weather performance tire, X-Ice Snow would be the choice for you but if you live in places which have only mild winter conditions & handling performance is what you like, Pilot Sport All Season 4 would be a wise choice.

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