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Electric Cars Have a Big Tire Conundrum

The Lucid Air Dream Edition travels up to 520 miles on a charge, more than any electric vehicle on the market by a wide margin. If a buyer chooses the larger, 21-inch wheels, however, 39 of those miles vanish — a 7.5% range penalty.

To be fair, the bigger shoes do look cool, and they’ll still take you nonstop from New York to Cleveland. But when it comes to wheels and tires — where the rubber literally meets the road on electric vehicle range — there’s an escalating battle between physics and aesthetics. More often than not, the latter is winning, as the people who buy EVs (and the people who make them) choose bigger, stickier, “spokier” options that prize looks and performance over efficiency.

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