Why Do Teslas Require Special Tires? Here’s The Explanation – SlashGear

The most distinguishable feature of Tesla tires versus standard passenger car tires is that the Tesla tires have a layer of acoustical foam inside the tire. Because Teslas don’t have an internal combustion engine, the ride is incredibly quiet. So quiet that some Tesla owners have commented that commonplace chimes and alerts sound much louder inside the Tesla’s cabin, leading to a reduced volume function known as Joe Mode.

A certain amount of tire noise in an ICE vehicle is concealed by engine noise, but in a Tesla, it’s much more noticeable, hence the quieting foam. However, using tires with noise-canceling foam is not strictly necessary to operate the vehicle. If some degree of additional road noise is acceptable to you, a bit of financial savings are available by fitting a standard tire of the appropriate size, load, and speed rating. In fact, early Teslas didn’t have noise-canceling foam inside their tires. Like so many Tesla updates, the idea was suggested to company CEO Elon Musk in a 2017 Tweet.