Excessive Tire Wear, Erroneous Mileage Prediction

[Stevelah]

My 2016 Spark EV right front tire is excessively worn after 29k miles. The alignment is fine, the pressure has been ok, so is there another reason this might happen, like which wheels actually propel the car? Is there any wear/warranty coverage on these original tires? I live in Los Angeles, so who makes a reasonably priced tire for this area? The well rated one Costco sells, the Bridgestone Weatherpeak, would cost about $250 out the door. That's a lot for one little tire on a 7 year old car that might need a new battery soon, and seems to be really hard on the right front tire.

Also, after a full charge, the display indicates my range is about 50 miles but the actual range, as indicated by the odometer, is usually about 70 miles. How do I get this corrected?

 

[Porsche]

You should consider yourself lucky. When I bought my 2015 Spark with 34k miles, the SECOND set of front tires was already shot (the rear tires were like new). Consider this, it's front wheel drive, plus, with regenerative braking, nearly all of the braking is from the front tires. On top of that, you can't rotate the tires front to back, so 30k miles is actually an accomplishment. It does seem odd that only one tire is excessively worn though.

Unless you're willing to sacrifice economy for performance, you'll definitely want a high tread life / low rolling resistance tire. Generally, since you can't rotate the tires, your warranty will be cut in half. The Weatherspeaks seem to have pretty good tread life, but don't know if they qualify as low rolling resistance. Also, if it matters to you, you can't get them in the right size for the rear tires. I got the General Altimax RT43's at half the price. Not sure, but I might have lost a few percent efficiency over the stock tires, but I think the handling is a little better. You can search this forum for tire discussions.

As for the range discrepancy, The predicted range is just that, a prediction. It is entirely dependent on past driving conditions and can be quite variable. So, for example, if you use the heater for a few days, the displayed range will be much lower and not indicative of your future expectations. There's a reason it's referred to as the "guess-o-meter" out here There really isn't anything to correct.

 

[Stevelah]

You should consider yourself lucky. When I bought my 2015 Spark with 34k miles, the SECOND set of front tires was already shot (the rear tires were like new). Consider this, it's front wheel drive, plus, with regenerative braking, nearly all of the braking is from the front tires. On top of that, you can't rotate the tires front to back, so 30k miles is actually an accomplishment. It does seem odd that only one tire is excessively worn though.

Unless you're willing to sacrifice economy for performance, you'll definitely want a high tread life / low rolling resistance tire. Generally, since you can't rotate the tires, your warranty will be cut in half. The Weatherspeaks seem to have pretty good tread life, but don't know if they qualify as low rolling resistance. Also, if it matters to you, you can't get them in the right size for the rear tires. I got the General Altimax RT43's at half the price. Not sure, but I might have lost a few percent efficiency over the stock tires, but I think the handling is a little better. You can search this forum for tire discussions.

As for the range discrepancy, The predicted range is just that, a prediction. It is entirely dependent on past driving conditions and can be quite variable. So, for example, if you use the heater for a few days, the displayed range will be much lower and not indicative of your future expectations. There's a reason it's referred to as the "guess-o-meter" out here There really isn't anything to correct.

Thanks for you response, but there is really is something to be corrected with respect to range prediction. For months now, I have been consistently getting about 70 miles to a charge, but after a full charge, the prediction is always around 52 miles. There is something wrong but the dealer wants to charge me over $100 to tell me there is something wrong when I already know there is. There must be a way to find out what typically causes this and how to fix it. I may have to repost this part of the problem with a different title.