Mini SE 2020 tire suggestions

I'm surprised your MINI dealer was clueless that the SE is the only MINI Cooper that doesn't have run-flat tires. The one consideration regarding tires you didn't mention was range. MINI chose the tires they put on the SE for both cornering performance and good range. Usually those two qualities can't be found in the same tire, but MINI did a good job of balancing the two.

Some members of this forum have switched to even stickier tires that provide less range on a charge--and probably less longevity, too. You say you're willing to sacrifice performance for longevity, so perhaps you should look into tires made specifically for EVs and hybrid cars.

 

Salut Coconuts! ÀMHA, mon char est une investissement, alors je me fierait au concessionaire pour les pièces de rechange, mais pour des pneus je trust Lorenzo chez LA Pneus à Vaudreuil. La MINI est une voiture haute performances avec assez de torque, donc elle mérite des pneus à haute performances aussi.

 

Pirelli and Goodyears also come on the SE with 17” wheels. Here is the Pirelli model available thru Tire Rack.

 

@Coconuts indicated he's willing to trade his short-lived ultra-high summer performance tires for tires with longer tread life. I found this Hankook Optimo H426 tire that promises 60,000 miles and good fuel-efficiency (ie. battery range), and is available in the SE's 205/45R17 size. I really like the Hankook ultra-high summer performance tires that came on my SE, so I stopped looking for competitors after finding this tire (OK, OK, I'm lazy).

 

I don’t have my car yet, but I called to reserve a set of Nokian winter tires for next season, and asked him about the apparent lack of non-run-flat summer tires in this size. Lorenzo and I have both had good experiences with Continental all-seasons on our German cars, and he suggested that the ExtremeContact ticks all the boxes: XL, 88 load rating, excellent tread life, and a high UTQG (560). Ces pneus sont même dispos en ligne chez PMC.

 

Some notes on tires to keep in mind:

• The SE (and all EVs) are heaver than normal cars, so you should be looking for XL rated tires.
• The instant torque of EVs wears out tires faster than ICE cars, so expect shorter life.
• Have a look at the Delivery Spreadsheet, it shows which tires people have gotten with their SEs.

Finally, for any tire you're looking at I recommend tracking down the EU Tire Label, it's a great way to judge performance characteristics. Here's the label for the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 tires that came on my SE.

 

Congratulations on your Mini-E!

Given the rapid changes in Quebec weather, I recommend something designed for wet (or snowy) roads. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=CrossClimate2

It *may* be worthwhile to purchase a set of steel rims for Winter with dedicated snow tires, if your regular tires are insufficient..

Be aware that any tire with better grip will adversely affect your power consumption - and cold weather reduces range.

 

We do get summer up here, eh? Winter-rated tires (with the mountain-snowflake icon) are mandatory in Québec from December 1 to March 15, and many (if not most) car owners have a dedicated set of winter wheels.

All our cars always get a set of Hakkas (currently R3s for my smaller cars, studless 9s for the wife’s Crosstrek), though I did buy mom a set of compliant Toyo Celsius all-weather tires that were very impressive in most conditions year-round for her limited driving.

But back to Québec “weather”: on most of my cars, the summer wheels have sticky, high-performance tires like Yokohama S.drive (or its successor, Advan), or Toyo Proxes. Fast-wearing, but stuck like flypaper in dry or wet conditions above 7°C/45°F. The snow only really starts flying here in December, with the occasional November dump. If I know we’ll be getting that stuff, the fun cars stay in the garage, but if it looks like cooler temperatures have settled in for the season, I’m spending an afternoon swapping all the tires.

 

I run my SE on Hakkapeliitta R3s in the winter and see essentially no range drop from my summer tires, they're very good.

 

Do you mean the OEM summers? If so, that's impressive! I wanted hakkas but they were out of stock. Have you been tracking your efficiency enough to have an average for summer vs winter?

My X-ICE Snow tires have close to the same efficiency as my UPH all seasons but both are much worse than the Hankook Ventus Prime3s the car came with.

(3.5mi/kWh winter, 3.7 A/S, and 4.7 OEM summer, long term averages)

 

I just logged into Spritmonitor.de for the first time in a long long long time, I didn’t know it still existed! Apparently they have iOS and Android apps, and you can add electric vehicles now — and there are several Cooper SEs in the database.

What does everybody here use to track efficiency?

 

Yes I've been tracking almost every trip. Some day I'd like to turn the data into a graph. My -3 ºF trip with no heat was on my winter wheels and I got 4.84 mi/kWh.

 

It may take a bit but you can enter all your archived data on Spritmonitor, and it generates graphs and averages. From there you can pull down CSVs to manipulate the data as you like.

 

For the 205/45/17, there appears to be quite the option range for performance tires, but less so on the touring/grand touring all season front. If pothole resilience and ride comfort are important, consider downsizing to 16 inch wheels for thicker sidewalls and what appears to be a larger option range of touring/grand touring tires...at least on the 195/55/16 side. Efficiency will most likely increase with the smaller diameter wheels, but the cost may be curb appeal, subjectively.

Performance tires on 16 inch wheels will also offer thicker sidewalls for extra cushion, but again, less high performance/summer options available for the 195/55/16 size.

The 205/55/16 tire size will also increase options, while adding cushion. Depending on the 16 inch wheels installed, the wider tire section width (of 205 tires) may interfere with the struts, but that depends largely on the wheel width and offset. Your OE 17 inch wheels are 7 inches wide (I believe), finding a 16 inch wheel with similar dimensions shouldn't be too difficult. I went with the black Sparco Terra wheels (16 by 7 inches wide). An online wheel calculator showed the same inboard wheel clearance with a 1/2 inch outboard extension.....surprisingly increasing curb appeal.



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Every car we've owned lately has gotten a set of General AltiMAX RT43. RAV4, CRV, Corolla hatchback. We're very happy with these tires. When it's time to replace the summer tires on the MINI SE, i plan on going with these also.

They seem to have good grip for all season and last a long time. They come in XL load rating for the 17" size, but the difference in load rating between 16's and 17's is so small IMO (1201 vs 1235) that i would personally get these in either size.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43&partnum=045VR7AMRT43XL
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=General&tireModel=AltiMAX+RT43&partnum=955VR6AMRT43

 

I'm sorry to hear about your issues with the tires and your dealer. It seems like the dealer has some financial obligation for selling you the wrong tire. We were worried about the pothole/rough road issues with the 17" wheels based on past experience. Consequently we bought our SE with factory 16" wheels. We've had no issues with the OEM 16" Hankooks our SE came with. If you continue to have tire issues, you may want to consider selling your 17" wheels and switch to 16" wheels.