My dealer kindly asked Land Rover why we can't specify 23 inch wheels on PHEVs.

(I did not dream of 23 inch wheels as a young chap - I just happen to prefer the designs of the 23 inch wheels)

It's not fair to post the advice verbatim as I haven't asked permission to do that, but in summary Land Rover don’t allow 23 inch wheels to be chosen from the factory or added as accessories due to the load rating on the tyre not being suitable for the powertrain and overall weight of the car and associated safety regulations.

I suppose Land Rover would struggle to prevent anyone from buying a set of wheels from somewhere and adding them, but the rationale gives pause for thought - I use my car once a year fully loaded for a trip to the Alps with 4 passengers and a roofbox full of skis.

Feel a bit frustrated that I can't have the powertrain I want with the look I want. And this image from Land Rover is a bit misleading!

What do you think?

https://www.landrover.co.uk/Images/Range-R...927375.pdf

Quote:

And this image from Land Rover is a bit misleading!

Insurance could be a problem.

In the highly unlikely event that your car was deemed a write off, and a loss adjuster looked at it, realising that you had the wrong wheels on the car, in theory, they could refuse to pay out, especially if they believed the wheels had compromised the car in some way.

I know it's extremely unlikely, but certainly possible - You know what insurance companies are like - Low lifes!

I've changed my order today to a P440e PHEV and also would really like the 23's, so I share your frustration.

I've gone for Batumi with 22" Style 7023 - Seems to work best with that colour and ties in well with the Autobiography Pack, IMO

Good point about insurance aja500.

Eirik34 thank you. The wheel options on the configurator now have a link to the corresponding tyres for each wheel. Clicking on that shows the 22 inch tyres have a load rating of 114 which is 1180 kg per tyre, 90kg more than the 23 inch tyres.

So it seems the limiting factor is tyre manufacturers producing a 23 inch tyre with 114 load rating.

That said I assume the tyre manufacturers build in a safety margin, so as you say Land Rover are anticipating that the rear axle load can exceed 2180kg on the PHEVs.

Unless the wheel specs for the L460 are different to the L405 at 22 inches and below I can imagine people using lower load rating tyres on PHEV L460s when they need replacing, especially in a pinch where you need the car and only a lower load rating tyre is available. (My L405 has 275/40 R22 so that is different to the 285/45 R22 shown at the link from the L460 screenshot below).

Feels like the best we can do is encourage Land Rover to encourage tyre manufacturers to produce a 23 inch tyre with 114 load rating.

Click image to enlarge

This reminds me of the report that when Tata bought JLR Ratan Tata asked "Why does design report to engineering?" and then decided that this should no longer be the case...

Talking to the LR people at the launch about wheel/tyre options (in the context of my wish for homologated off road tyres) I mentioned the example of being unable to configure steel wheels on Defenders other than diesel base models. This was met with the comment that there was a great fear of litigation if people did the wrong thing and then blamed (and sued) LR for not protecting them from themselves. Only Range Rovers since 1988

If you consider loading the P510e to max (3450kg) and expect that the rear axel will have a load of 2360kg in order to justify the 114 load rating, that mean each forward wheel "only" will have a load of 545 kg. Quite unbalanced load distribution front-rear in those cases; front 1090 kg (32%) vs rear 68%.
The only time you'll need the 114 rating is if you fill the car with 5 adults (75kg each) + 340kg luggage and drive full throttle 242km/h on the German Autobahn... So I think the 23" wheels with the 111 load rating will be safe to use for all practical purposes and trips.

Hi all. My first post on here.
I asked my dealership the same question (today, before I had seen this thread), ie why 23in isn't an option in the online configurator for the (510) phev. According to the dealer, the reason was understood to be that larger rims compromise ev range due to increased weight and inertia and that this would negatively influence the manufacturer's emissions compliance objectives. I am no expert in neither the technical nor regulatory aspects of this but in isolation I guess it sounds plausible to me. Although heavier wheels would have a similar effect on non ev/phev cars as well (maybe even a larger net negative effect as such cars would not recover some of that loss through the positive effects the increased weight/inertia would have on regeneration?). Another aspect could be tax related electric range thresholds that are imposed for phev's to get maximum benefit of possible tax reductions, eg in Norway this is achieved for phev's at 100km of electric range. Presume this could also mean the cars will need to be able to achieve such range with any of the rim/tyre combinations that are offered & delivered as factory fitment.
In my case the dealer would happily include larger LR sourced rims w/summer tyres with my order, whilst putting winter tyres on the 22in that I have specced in the online configurator.

deleted double post

Very possible that it’s down to range in electric mode - eg. choosing a 20” wheel instead of 19” on the BMW i4 knocks off fifty(!) miles of range.

I wonder if the phev will come on different rubber to aid with rolling resistance. Our current BEV came with tyres developed for EV downside they have half the tread depth of standard  MY23 PHEV HSE
MY19 Disco 5 HSE - gone
My16 Disco 4 HSE LUXURY - gone
My12 Disco 4 HSE - gone
MY05 Disco 3 S - gone but not forgotten

For anyone wishing to buy 23 inch wheels in a situation where a dealer won't supply them, interesting to see they are all showing as in stock from this supplier:

https://rimmerbros.com/ItemList--Range-Rov...s--m-24504

Very good news, Freddy! Might be the way to go if the dealers aren't allowed to provide the 23" wheels as PHEV accessories due to the tyre load ratings.

No SV ones listed I notice. The SV 23s are the best wheels by a long way I think.

A bit of repetition, but as mentioned in a previous post, I am not sure tyre load rating is the reason why 23in wheels aren't officially offered on the phevs.

As an example, a P530 lwb weighs almost exactly the same as a P440e, yet the latter can't be had with 23in wheels whilst the P530 lwb can. An assumption that this relates to range rather than tyre load rating, seems reasonable.

Granted, it is the max allowed axle load that determines the minimum load rating for the tyres, and not the total weight. Thus, one could say that although two cars have the same weight, one might still require a higher tyre load rating due to differences in weight distribution. But my guess would be that the phevs have a more favourable (read: more evenly distributed between front/rear axle) weight distribution than the non phevs, and thus - provided my assumption is correct of course -this only underpins the theory that this is range rather than weight related. I guess some hard data on axle loads could help to clarify this. At the same time could potentially open up a wider range of tyres to choose from as well?

Which tyres are LR recommending for the 23 inch wheels?