Stock. It’s how cars come from the factory, exactly the way the manufacturer intended. Whether the stock configuration is right for you, though, is not a question that gets asked. Rather, automakers define what stock means based on the minimum viable option. That’s why it’s quite alright, if not desirable, that you break the seal on your car by upgrading certain elements immediately with better solutions from the aftermarket. Tires are one such element.
Stock tires are fine. They get the job done for the first few tens of thousands of miles (hopefully), but most car owners don’t buy a second set of the same stock tires when the first wears out. Why would they? Aftermarket tires manufactured by companies like Hankook Tire are often better in every way than the stock tires that came with your car. What else do you expect from companies that make the design and manufacturing of tires their sole business.
This is even more true in regards to electric vehicles. Because of how relatively young EVs are to the market, manufacturers haven’t yet figured out what makes a stock EV-specific tire great, both for their bottom line and the consumer’s driving experience. While the aftermarket has stepped in with multiple EV-specific tire alternatives, many tire manufacturers don’t have the R&D chops, the green expertise, or frankly the will to produce the best EV-specific tire possible. Hankook Tire, however, is different.
Founded in 1941 by American tire giant Bridgestone, Hankook Tire today produces over 100 million tires annually. A truly global company, its North American headquarters is located in Nashville, Tennessee and it operates a manufacturing facility nearby in the town of Clarksville. While known worldwide for its tires, the company also makes aluminum wheels, brake pads, and batteries.
The company says in its mission statement, “We will indulge in tireless research, wage a fearless battle, and embrace daring innovation to lay out high technologies that will define the global mobility industry.” That’s why you can trust that Hankook Tire has developed the best EV-specific aftermarket tires in the world. It doesn’t hurt that the company employs 20,000 people around the world and operates five separate research and development centers.
Those combined resources have come up with the iON line of tires designed specifically for the unique needs of electric vehicles. The first thing Hankook engineers did was identify what those needs are. They determined four areas where EVs diverge from traditional gas-powered vehicles that affect tire performance: EVs require lower noise, higher load support, better response to higher torque, and lower rolling resistance.
With such a mixed bag of needs, some even at odds with each other, Hankook had its work cut out for itself. The iON line of tires, however, manages to meet them all. It’s a tire that somehow combines lower noise with a stronger structure and higher grip with lower rolling resistance. Let’s see how they did it.
The iON is significantly quieter while in motion than a traditional tire. From the tread pattern to the rubber’s thickness to the use of sound absorbing materials and more, Hankook Tire has left no stone unturned in its search for unwanted decibels to quash.
The tread patterns used on iON tires, for instance, employ lateral grooves called knurling within the main vertical grooves of the tire. These small lateral grooves are responsible for decreasing tire noise by nearly 1 decibel. Likewise, the side grooves on iON tires widen as they reach the edge of the tire, which lowers the pumping sound a tire makes. Lastly, iON tires use a sound absorbing material inside, which is enhanced by changes the company made to the tire’s stiffness, mass, and frequency.
Strength is also important for an EV-specific tire, as EVs weigh on average 30% more than a similarly sized traditional car. Hankook Tire has no less than 11 patents dedicated entirely to tire strength and increasing tread life. The company’s engineers developed a special ProDurable Compound for iON tires, which is a proprietary recipe for high durability rubber that employs both a high-concentration silica and eco-friendly compounds. The end result is rubber that lasts longer despite the increased load they’re carrying.
Hankook engineers also developed Round Even technology to improve tire strength. Any deformation of a tire’s contact patch with the road can lead to uneven wear of the rubber, which greatly reduces its usable life. Round Even employs a suite of technologies including stiffer sidewalls to ensure the tire’s ground pressure is optimized for the longest possible tire life.
And then there’s rolling resistance. Hankook Tire uses good old fashioned Mother Nature to make iON tires more efficient in this regard. These tires are made with a special tread mixture that contains a high amount of natural resin, which not only ensures they’re more durable but also reduces friction compared to conventional tires.
The high percentage of natural oils in the mixture also makes iON tires more ecologically sustainable and improves the durability of the tire tread itself. Because of this increased resistance to wear, iON tires need less material than conventional tires for the same overall mileage, which makes them lighter overall. By reducing weight on the wheels, energy consumption goes down while efficiency and range increases.
Low-rolling resistance is normally at odds with high levels of grip, but not for iON tires. EV-specific tires have to be able to handle the high torque levels generated by electric motors, so Hankook engineers imbued these tires with more traction thanks to special tread patterns and proprietary rubber compounds.
How did the Hankook Tire engineers do in their quest to make the best EV-specific aftermarket tire? According to the company’s own estimates, iON tires achieve a 29% reduction in noise, a 25% increase in tread life, a 6.3% increase in battery range, and 20% improved stability.
But you don’t have to take the company’s word for it. TÜV SÜD, an independent testing, inspection, and certification organization, rated the iON evo AS tire highest among the four leading EV-specific tires on the market. They were found to have the best dry braking, wet braking, wet lateral grip, snow acceleration, snow handling, and rolling resistance of the group.
Auto Bild, the leading German automotive magazine, crowned the iON evo summer tire king of its “Reifencheck” tire test, bestowing it the rating “Very Good.” The outlet compared three of the top EV-specific tires to determine which could balance high performance and excellent safety properties with the needs of having the lowest possible rolling resistance and promoting maximum range. The iON tire came out on top.
None of these advancements would mean anything if iON tires didn’t perform in the real world, and they do. Hankook Tire knows this and backs its EV-specific tires with a 50,000-mile warranty against premature wear. The company also gives you 30 days to try out a set of iON tires on your EV to make sure they deliver what they promise.
The world of motorsport has also heard how good iON tires are. Formula E, the world’s pre-eminent all-electric open-wheel racing series, recently replaced Michelin as its official tire supplier with Hankook Tire. Formula E race cars are now wearing iON Formula E tires, which share their technology with iON road tires.
Finally, it doesn’t matter how good the iON line of EV-specific tires is if there isn’t a set that fits your car and the conditions in which you drive. Hankook Tire really excels here, offering iON tires in 210 different sizes across 7 separate product lines:
- iON ST AS: all-season touring tire for passenger cars and SUVs
- iON GT: summer touring tire for passenger cars and SUVs
- iON evo AS: all-season performance tire for passenger cars and SUVs
- iON evo: summer sport tire for passenger cars and SUVs
- iON Icept: alpine winter studless tire for passenger cars and SUVs
- iON FlexClimate: all-weather performance tire for passenger cars and SUVs
- iON Nordic Ice: nordic winter studded tire for passenger cars and SUVs
And Hankook Tire is adding more sizes to the iON line every day. The company plans on adding 49 more sizes by the end of 2024, bringing the total count up to 259 sizes. At that point, there should be an iON tire that fits every electric car, truck, and SUV on sale in America.
So no, you aren’t stuck with the stock tires that came with your new EV. Upgrading to a set of iON tires from Hankook Tire will give you better performance on every level, from strength to grip to range to noise. No stock tire can match the attributes of the iON, so make it the first modification you make to your electric vehicle.
