I recently bought a set of EV Sportline 20" wheels. I started looking for a tire that would look good and ride good. I opted for a cheap set of 285/60/20 tires from China, no doubt. Cost me all of about $800, and they looked great!
Come to find they were noisy. I realized that a big knobbly tire might be noisy, and they were. Much more than the factory 21" Pirelli's.
I started some research, and found that Michelin was about to launch a whole new tire for trucks and large SUV's, called the Michelin Defender LTX Platinum.
These were just released in November 2023! Michelin is actively producing this tire and many sizes aren't available yet! Like a 275/60R20, the Rivian recommended size.
Seeing that I already had a 285/60/20 tire on my truck with no rubbing or any issues whatsoever, I went for them again, and they were available.
Costco's website still shows these tires as "unavailable, temporarily out of stock".
I only had them for a day now. Driving out of the Costco parking lot I could tell, even at these low speeds, that this was a great tire.
They're as quiet as my factory 21's.
On the freeway at speed these were just awsome! By the way the speed rating is "S", 112 mph.
I must say, they don't look as good as some All terrain tires out there, but they have a 70,000 mile warranty!
I never intend to take my truck off road, and these weren't made for rock crawling.
If you're looking for a comfortable great tire that's gonna last a while, these are the one's.
The first picture is of my original "knobbly" tires. The last three are the Michelin's.
Defender is a product line, but there are several models within it. You linked to the Defender 2, but OP bought the new Defender LTX Platinum. There's also Defender LTX M/S and the new Defender LTX M/S2.
That’s not surprising since you bought the LT version of the tire. If you went with 275/60/20 it’s the 115 load rating and about 16 pounds lighter which would make a massive difference.
The likely cause is rolling resistance. Rolling resistance is more related to tire material and tire pressure, than tire tread. The AT on the Rivian is designed for Rivian, I believe, so it probably has lower rolling resistance than other tires. Personally I am surprised at your results, but rolling resistance is the likely reason and it makes sense. Of course Rivian would focus on that to provide the best range possible from the factory.
I totally disagree. 16 lbs will have almost no impact. Yes, it will take more energy to accelerate, but at steady state speed there is no impact, and when slowing down you recapture the energy with regeneration. Weight is a minor factor. Rolling resistance and aerodynamics are the main factors when it comes to wheels/tires. Surprisingly, the Defenders have a higher rolling resistance than the stock ATs. Maybe not surprising after you consider Rivian picked the AT tires and was picking tires that have low rolling resistance.
I was think of this, but if you check any of my previous posts you'd see I pretty much push the envelope on towing weight quite frequently, so went with the beefier tire.
The difference is like a "margin of error". Even if you lose a few percent in range, you will make it up in tread wear.
How do you know? There doesn’t seem to be consistent rolling resistance info out there.
I think this is a huge problem and I was hoping the tire industry would have solved it by now. There needs to be a test that measures rolling resistance at the recommend tire pressure and a rating applied to each tire. As of today, the only thing you can go by is whether or not the tire is designed for EV use, which should mean it has lower rolling resistance. But there is no way to compare two different tires that are both designed for EV use. It is very frustrating.
There definitely is a measure of rolling resistance, but it's not something that's published for consumer knowledge. That test you speak of is definitely a thing and is a hard requirement when designing a tire for an OE
