Experimental Comparison of Tire Tread Wear Performance on Conventional and Electric Vehicles under Controlled Road Conditions

Abstract

The replacement of internal combustion engine (ICE) with electric motor by electric vehicles (EVs) technology is one of the most comprehensive transition in the automotive industry for recent decades. EVs technology causes fundamental changes in vehicle architecture and dynamics including increased overall weight due to battery packs, altered torque delivery, and regenerative braking systems. These changes have significant implications on tires because of the direct interaction of vehicle and road. Therefore, tire performance characteristics are influenced by the type of powertrain. According to the distinctive operating conditions of EVs comparing with the conventional vehicles, determination of the tire tread wear behavior has become a critical challenge for tires. The higher mass and unique driving characteristics of EVs cause fast and unevenly distributed tire wear. This study aims to evaluate the investigation of passenger car tire tread wears for conventional and electric vehicles under controlled road testing.  Four commercially available tires are selected for the tests using conventional vehicles on Route-1 and EV testing on Route-2. Key indicators such as average tread depth reduction, wear uniformity, and wear pattern distribution are measured to assess the impact of vehicle type. The results indicate that EVs consistently impose higher tread wear than conventional vehicles.

For the tested tire specifications, tread-wear-based mileage on electric-vehicle platforms was markedly lower than on conventional platforms, with the strongest reduction observed on the front axle. Depending on tire type, the estimated mileage reduction from ICE to EV ranged from approximately 35 % to 62 %. The findings indicate that the combined effect of higher vehicle mass, instantaneous torque delivery and regenerative braking intensifies wear severity and front/rear imbalance, especially under urban and stop-go EV duty cycles. These results support the need for EV-oriented tire compounds, axle-specific design strategies and validation procedures that reflect route severity and real operating conditions.