winter tyres

I bought the i3 4 months ago and want to fit winter tyres but I am getting contradictory info. The BMW garage only sell wheels and tyres for the princely sum of £1700.
The car has front and back tyres of a different size so I would assume you buy winter tyres to match but the BMW garage was trying to sell me the same size for all 4.
The handbook says nothing on the subject.
I have also read that the regen system causes problems in snow/ice
Thank you for any help.

Stkildaman said:

I bought the i3 4 months ago and want to fit winter tyres but I am getting contradictory info. The BMW garage only sell wheels and tyres for the princely sum of £1700.
The car has front and back tyres of a different size so I would assume you buy winter tyres to match but the BMW garage was trying to sell me the same size for all 4.
The handbook says nothing on the subject.
I have also read that the regen system causes problems in snow/ice
Thank you for any help.

Click to expand...

The snow tires for the i3 fit on the smaller wheels with all 4 equal width. Other members should be able to share their experiences with the different models of snow tire, but I can verify that the regen will alarm you at first on slick surfaces. Let off the accelerator slowly when you feel your back wheels slipping rather than the quicker response you may be used to if you drive a "normal" RWD in winter weather. There's also a traction mode if that's not enough.

It's nice to have a second set of wheels and tires when you've got summer tires, at least if you've got room to store the off-season ones and the ability to change them yourself. First forecast of snow or below 40F or so and you can swap them out, then back to the performance tires in spring.

Nobody makes winter tires for the i3 in the staggered sizes, or in 20" varieties. In the US, there are two tires that are made in the needed sizes: The OEM Bridgestones, and the Nokian R3. I think Europe may have another choice. OF the two, I think the NOkian is the better tire (I have a set on my ICE). Without good winter tires on your i3, you'll notice many more issues about traction control (regen) than you will with them. For a practical point, when you've got snow and ice, if you don't do things more slowly and gradually, you're just asking for issues. The winter tires do help.