Wheel aerodynamics

How much fuel do your wheels consume? Yes, there is no mistake in this question, it's the wheels. We're used to asking this question about a car or tires, but certainly not about wheels. But it turns out that wheels can account for a significant portion of energy consumption. And the energy in a car comes from a source, whether it's a fuel tank or an electric vehicle battery. 

For an example to understand the question, we can take Tesla cars. Why? We think you'll agree that Tesla cars can be called pioneers in electric vehicles. It was they who managed to arouse interest in this type of transport and make it not only attractive but also accessible. It was in Tesla, from the first models, that aerodynamic wheel covers began to appear. At first, this shocked, because in our understanding, wheel covers should modestly cover stamped wheels, but in the case of Tesla, they cover excellent alloy wheels that look great. All for the sake of aerodynamics. 

So what range do aerodynamic wheel covers give on Tesla?

The largest electric vehicle rental company "Nextmove" in Germany conducted a test and compared the energy consumption readings with and without wheel covers on three Tesla Model S electric vehicles. A total of three laps were completed on a 94-kilometer track at a speed of 150 km/h. Two models drove two laps with wheel covers and one without them. The third model drove all three laps with aerodynamic wheel covers on the wheels as a standard to exclude any external influences such as wind and traffic density and take them into account in the calculations. 

The test showed that aerodynamic wheel covers reduce fuel consumption by 3% at a speed of 150 km/h on the highway. In terms of a fully charged battery, this means an increase in range of eight kilometers compared to driving without wheel covers.

Three percent? At first glance, it's not that much. But if we consider how much effort car manufacturers put into optimizing the body and drive, three percent is quite significant. Increasing battery capacity by three percent would have the same effect on range, but would be many times more expensive than a set of plastic wheel covers.