Yahoo Autos You'll Lose 23 Miles of Range If You Order Your Tesla Model 3 Performance With the Big 20-Inch Wheels
When you opt for the biggest wheel available on a new car, you're always sacrificing something. Bigger wheels cost more and ride rougher than their downsized counterparts, two sacrifices we commonly note. What we usually don't point out is the other penalty: cars with big wheels are less efficient.
That's clear if you've looked at Tesla's official EPA figures for the 2020 Model 3 Performance, which were first brought to our attention by InsideEVs. According to the figures, a Model 3 Performance on standard 18-inch wheels can drive up to 322 miles on a charge, achieving 124 MPGe in the EPA's combined cycle.
Upgrade to the 20-inch wheels and your maximum EPA-estimated range drops by 23 miles, to 299 miles per change. The bigger wheels bring a significant reduction in efficiency, dropping the official rating of the Model 3 Performance down to 113 MPGe combined. If you opt for the mid-tier, 19-inch wheels, the EPA says to expect 304 miles of range and 116 MPGe.
The EPA numbers show similar range penalties for upsized wheels on the Performance versions of the Model S and Model X. The Model X loses 33 miles of range if you opt for 22-inch wheels over the standard 20s, while a 21-inch-equipped Model S Performance sacrifices 22 miles of range compared to the standard 19-inch wheels. Strangely, the EPA does not break out range and MPGe ratings by wheel size on non-Performance Tesla models.
The 2019 Model 3 Performance, we should note, was only available with 20-inch wheels. It was rated by the EPA at 116 MPGe and a 310-mile range, both better figures than the EPA expects from the 2020 Model 3 Performance on 20-inch wheels. That's an outlier, as the rest of the Model 3 lineup (Standard Range and Long Range) got more efficient for 2020 in EPA ratings.
And currently, on Tesla's website, you can only configure a Model 3 Performance with 20-inch wheels—the standard 18-inch wheels are greyed-out and not clickable on the page, and the 20s are included in the price of the Performance package.
Tesla has not confirmed whether 18- or 19-inch wheels will be available on the 2020 Model 3 Performance, though these EPA ratings suggest that it's happening. A spokesperson for the company did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
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