I just replaced the second tire on my wife's ID.4 in the 9 months (10k miles) she's had it. The first was from hitting debris on the freeway; the second turning a corner and curb-checking. The last one was a bit odd - it sliced the sidewall and actually cracked the rim, which had to be replaced. I'm guessing the load being carried has a lot to do with why this car seems so much more fragile than previous (I probably replaced 2-3 tires in the previous 10 years combined, mostly RAV4s)
It’s interesting that many vehicles are damaged or destroyed by being driven too gently, rather than too aggressively.<p>Some Porsche cars have this problem where if you don’t drive the car hard enough, engine oil isn’t splashed over an internal rubber seal. Over time and without lubrication, the seal grows brittle and eventually fails, causing catastrophic engine failure.<p>Similarly, cruising around at too low an RPM applies more force on the piston with each explosion, which also damages the engine over time.<p>Driving in conserve mode on this truck is a new one for me.
I find this story to be more highlighting / reminding of the phenomenon of clawback, and how do you slow people from consuming more and more.<p>As soon as you achieve some gain in energy efficiency of anything, people find new ways to use even more energy. Make lights more energy efficient and LED-powered, and they put up more lights. Lower the cost of fuel or electricity, and they use even more. Make a car less polluting and powered by batteries, they make it even heavier and more energy consuming.
It's worse than that. EVs attract nails like nobody's business. It's a combination of the weight, torque, and rolling resistance optimizations, I think. This holds true for most EVs. I lost a tire completely at less than 250 miles. I've had ten flats in EVs in ten years of driving them, most non-repairable.
I’ve noticed Rivian trucks in NC often have a “Weighted” license tag as the truck is near the weight limits for a standard license tag. I suspect it only matters when towing, but plenty of people seem to pay extra for it with their Rivian truck.
This is an interesting topic to me, because electric vehicles are heavier than vehicles of similar sizes, but as of right now aren't paying gas tax which helps to keep the road maintained. Heavier vehicles wear on the road more than lower weight vehicles, so it's a bit regressive at the moment.<p>Tangentially, there was a 60 Minutes or similar report recently on how the extra weight of the vehicles also makes them more dangerous to vehicles of similar sizes that are much less weight. Instead of being hit by a Ford Taurus with a lighter weight, you're basically being hit with an F-150 in the size of a Taurus.