Front 21" Tire Shortage

[msav2000]

I own a 22 GT with 21" wheels. As someone living in LA, I have to deal with potholes, sometimes bad ones. After winter rains we have a lot of these, and it takes time to fix them, so hitting them is almost inevitable. I just had to replace the front right after it developed bulges.

The tires are not available. Pirelli says they are on a 90 days back order. I was lucky to get the last one from Lucid of Beverly Hills. Guys told me "Lucid is working on a solution", but whatever they work on, IMHO is unlikely to solve the shortage quickly. Just keep it in mind - there is a risk of parking your car for 3 months at least. Or spend thousands to downgrade to 19" or 20" wheels and tires. No shortage of 19" or 20".

Stay safe, don't drive with bulges. They likely indicate a rim damage too. $925 per wheel.

 

[terrycs]

I bet in a pinch, it is possible to increase front tire width by one size using the factory wheels without any issues. If so, the worst case solution to consider is to buy a pair of new tires vs car being down for 3 months?

 

[msav2000]

Not qualified to confirm or deny. I know a tire shop looked for a replacement tire in this size for me, but nothing else has the load rating.

Is it possible to use 265 rears instead of 245 fronts? IDK.

 

[terrycs]

Not qualified to confirm or deny. I know a tire shop looked for a replacement tire in this size for me, but nothing else has the load rating.

Is it possible to use 265 rears instead of 245 fronts? IDK.

265 probably needs wider wheels. 255 probably not. I just don't know what EV tire sizes are available though.

 

[OCDC]

Going up to 255/35ZR21 98W in front and 275/35ZR21 103W in the rear opens up possibilities. Those are common sizes for Model X, which has a similar curb weight to the Air.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Yikes. I just confirmed on TireRack. Fronts are back ordered. Hopefully the situation is resolved soon. At least I have a temp spare so I could drive it home in the unlikely event I needed a completely new front tire.

 

[DreamTour]

If you are willing to take the risk, there are a bunch of lightly used ones on ebay.

 

[Alex]

Is it possible to use 265 rears instead of 245 fronts? IDK.

It's not probably not possible, because they may rub: I just found out an hour ago. I was having my 19" wheels/tires swapped for the 21" performance tires at Discount Tire. The tire tech asked. if there were wheel spacers available for the front. The manager and I told him that he was trying to install the 265s in the front. Obviously, he then installed the correct wheels/ tires.

The rear wheels are 1" larger (21x9.5”) than the front, so maybe using the front wheels (21x8.5”) with rear tires may work.

I've been holding on to these 21" performance wheels/tires for the Dream Edition for 2 years and decided since the weather was warmer I would put them on finally. I notice the rougher ride right away.

 

[OCDC]

Going up to 255/35ZR21 98W in front and 275/35ZR21 103W in the rear opens up possibilities. Those are common sizes for Model Y. X, which has a similar curb weight to the Air.

I'm amending my previous statement. 245/35ZR21 99Y and 265/35ZR21 103Y Michelin Pilot Sport EV are available for order from Costco.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I own a 22 GT with 21" wheels. As someone living in LA, I have to deal with potholes, sometimes bad ones. After winter rains we have a lot of these, and it takes time to fix them, so hitting them is almost inevitable. I just had to replace the front right after it developed bulges.

The tires are not available. Pirelli says they are on a 90 days back order. I was lucky to get the last one from Lucid of Beverly Hills. Guys told me "Lucid is working on a solution", but whatever they work on, IMHO is unlikely to solve the shortage quickly. Just keep it in mind - there is a risk of parking your car for 3 months at least. Or spend thousands to downgrade to 19" or 20" wheels and tires. No shortage of 19" or 20".

Stay safe, don't drive with bulges. They likely indicate a rim damage too. $925 per wheel.

I'm amending my previous statement. 245/35ZR21 99Y and 265/35ZR21 103Y Michelin Pilot Sport EV are available for order from Costco.

The reason they don't show up when one searches for tires for the car is that the OEM front tires are "HL" rated whereas the Michelins are XL rated. According to the Continental tire web site, the difference between XL and HL rated tires is:

"An XL load index tyre can cope with a load capacity of up to 750kg (load index 98) and a HL load index tyre a load capacity of up to 825kg (load index 101). This means that a HL tyre’s load capacity is almost a quarter greater than that of a standard tyre."

HL – Continental’s high load tyre for heavy electric vehicles | What Tyre | Independent tyre comparison

Large, powerful cars and SUVs with electric or hybrid drives are substantially heavier than conventional ICE-powered vehicles and thus need tyres that can handle greater loads. The solution is to fit tyres with a higher load index. The gold standard here is HL, or High Load. Continental has...

whattyre.com

Interestingly, the Costco web site shows the Michelin as having a load rating of 99 which is what the OEM has but with an XL rating. I don't know how much of a risk it would be to use the XL Michelins.

 

[OCDC]

"An XL load index tyre can cope with a load capacity of up to 750kg (load index 98) and a HL load index tyre a load capacity of up to 825kg (load index 101). This means that a HL tyre’s load capacity is almost a quarter greater than that of a standard tyre."

Hmmm... the way this is described, you could wipe out the need for the XL/HL spec just by increasing the load index.

A "99" load index is good for 1709lbs (776kg) per tire. A "103" load index is good for 1929lbs (876kg) per tire. The sum of the 4 tires is 7276lbs, a fair bit more than the 6283lb GVWR of the Air.

The only thing I can think of is that XL/HL is meant explicitly for high performance cars with lots of torque/horsepower, applying a shearing tangental load to the tires in addition to the weight. But I can't find anything more than marketing mumbo jumbo.

 

[Bishop555]

Costco shows the same “hl” spec as the pirelli’s

Front Tire​

Tire Size: HL245/35ZR21/XLSpeed Rating: YLoad Index: 99UTQG: 320 B ARun Flat: NoWarranty: 20k milesSeason: Summer

Rear Tire​

Tire Size: HL265/35ZR21/XLSpeed Rating: YLoad Index: 103UTQG: 320 B ARun Flat: NoWarranty: 20k milesSeason: Summer

 

[davidilan]

I'm picking up my '24 Touring Stealth with '21s on Saturday. I also live in LA. These posts are a little concerning, to say the least. I was planning on buying tire certificates at Discount Tire as one of the other members suggested but that won't help if there are no tires available.... Right?

 

[raculot]

My car has been out of commission for two weeks waiting for a front tire. I'm planning to just get a full set of 19" wheels and tires, because who knows how much longer it'll take. Lucid KOP sure doesn't!

 

[jtbg]

If somebody gets in a bind and urgently needs one of the 21" OEM front tires, I have at least one (potentially three) sitting here unused in storage.
I'm not actively trying to sell them or anything, but happy to help out if you someone needs it to get back on the road

 

[Tim-in-CA]

I'm picking up my '24 Touring Stealth with '21s on Saturday. I also live in LA. These posts are a little concerning, to say the least. I was planning on buying tire certificates at Discount Tire as one of the other members suggested but that won't help if there are no tires available.... Right?

It’s Americas Tire in LA

 

[PCorkett]

I'm picking up my '24 Touring Stealth with '21s on Saturday. I also live in LA. These posts are a little concerning, to say the least. I was planning on buying tire certificates at Discount Tire as one of the other members suggested but that won't help if there are no tires available.... Right?

What is a tire certificate?

 

[Steveinarizona]

Discount Tire/America's Tire speak for its program to replace damaged tires:

Discount Tire | Tires and Wheels for Sale | Online & In-Person

www.discounttire.com

 

[terrycs]

I'm picking up my '24 Touring Stealth with '21s on Saturday. I also live in LA. These posts are a little concerning, to say the least. I was planning on buying tire certificates at Discount Tire as one of the other members suggested but that won't help if there are no tires available.... Right?

Sure ... it will help ... the warranty cert will still apply when replacement tire becomes available. No cert means you'd pay out of pocket for the tire when replacement becomes available.

 

[Bill55]

I'm running the Michelin 21s and on a recent road trip a day after hitting a pot hole the tire developed a leak right where the bead meets the side wall. I was able to pull off and get to a gas station. Tire was of course unrepairable. Near St Louis. Called Lucid and they sent a tow. Discount tire said they could get a Pirelli in 7-10 days. I told them I was running the Michelin. It was 5PM and they said they could have one in the morning. Car was towed to Discount tire. When I called in the morning, they had the tire, but would not mount it on the rim. Bought the tire, put it in the truck, arranged another tow and went to a local shop that had it mounted and balanced and me out the door in less than 30 minutes. 4 Pirelli side wall bubbles and 1 deflated Michelin in 27.5K miles on DE. No issues so far with the Sapphire Michelins at 4361 miles.
2 tires were from pot holes where it was enough of an event I checked the tire. The other 3 were from impacts that were not anything out of ordinary. No rim damage on any of these.