This morning after dropping my wife off at work, I was returning home, which should typically take 5 minutes. As it was snowing (mild), I was driving carefully, and it started skidding frequently. I reduced my speed to 10-15 mph. There is a slight incline on the way to my home. The car stopped and began to move at 1 to 2 miles per hour. However, all other vehicles were moving at average speeds without any skidding! It took me 46 minutes to move the last 0.5 to 0.6 miles to my home. I changed from comfort to sports mode and back and even from strong to normal recuperation, which made no difference. After about 40 minutes or so, the power improved, and I reached home. I called "me" Mercedes through the car, and they felt it could be due to summer tires, which will not have enough traction. I can't believe that having summer tires will reduce the power to move forward! I am not sure if Mercedes electric cars are ready for prime time yet! I noticed every other car driving quite normally, and sitting and moving at 1-2 mph in a luxury car wasn't very comfortable.
Did this happen to anyone? Is it the tires?
Thank you.

 

Did not happen to me but I did notice on my road trip that the EQS electronics do NOT like cold weather. I got flashing error messages and the adaptive cruise control would randomly cut out (only several times on the highway) as the temp was below about 34F. All of that behavior self-corrected when the temp rose. My golf cart is the same way with regard to cold temperatures. I wonder if other EV owners experience these problems as the temperature drops? I will get to experiment a little this weekend as we drop below 0F with windchill and I commute back and forth to the hospital. I may browse the Tesla/Rivian/Audi/BMW forums to see if others have these issues as well.

 

You are lucky you got anywhere at all. RWD and summer tires on ice! On a 3 ton car. No to be mean, but.....WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!! You are lucky you didn't destroy the car running into a culvert or another vehicle. Even if its an AWD 450, driving a car with summer tires on ice is extraordinarily dumb.

 

There was no ice. It is RWD. As far as I was told, the tires were all season! On the ice, no tire is going to save you from skidding! The point is not about skidding! Why should the power be abnormally low?

 

Please, let me know. Maybe the safety algorithms dramatically reduced the power! Thank you.

 

The low power is the traction control system.Remember, even light snow when fresh can be as slick as ice. You can resolve the low power issue by turning the traction control off, BUT, youll slide that much more. When there is frozen precipitation I run the vehicle in eco which tames the torque by reducing power but the vehicle won't stall.

 

Okay, Thank you. I did not try the Eco option. I shall try that if it happens (hopefully not) again. I did look for the traction control button/option, but I could not locate it. Will research to see if that is available on this unlike on my previous GLS 580.

 

The traction control is in the vehicle settings menu, there is no button. Be safe.

 

I checked. Under Vehicle, I found Electronic Stability Control under Dynamic Select. However, there is no option to turn it off. I can only switch between comfort and sport.

 

The traction control is part of the stabilty system. Sorry about the confusion.

 

Summer tires under 30F get very hard and slick and are very dangerous

time for winter tires or at least all seasons

 

Summer tires take on the characteristics of glass when the temperature drops due to the rubber compound.
Link

 

Your initial post said you have summer tires. Suggest you look at the sidewall and see what you actually have. Shrugs

 

That's correct! I was initially told at the buying time that they were all season. However, talking to the Mercedes roadside assistance, they stated that I most likely have summer tires.
I just checked the tires. It shows they are made in Germany. Treadwear rated 300, traction AA, and temperature A. It does not say all-season or summer. I looked it up on the net, I could not interpret it with certainty that they are all-season.
I am hoping to get the snow tires tomorrow and install them at the dealership.
Thank you all for the input. I am for all-season or snow tires in the winter. That was not my question originally. I was curious if the tire type affects the electric car's power transmission to the wheels. I got the answer, BTW.
Thanks again.

 

And will you share your answer?

At least I didn’t see it! 🥹

 

I am truly sorry for not being specific and accurate. I think at this point what C4004matic said, "The low power is the traction control system. Remember, even light snow when fresh can be as slick as ice. You can resolve the low power issue by turning the traction control off..." seems to be the answer I got.
The car sensed that it was skidding (sensors were extremely sensitive, probably) and reduced the power to the wheels, and allowed enough power to go at 1-2 mph. The moment it reached the less snowy part of the road, it released more power, feeling it was safer now! I shall post my experience post-snow tire installation. If the problem persists or recurs, we must research the cause. I sincerely thank all of you for your valuable input!

 

What is the brand and model of tires that you have? Does your car have the AMG wheels? The low wear rating does suggest that that car is equipped with summer tires. Why they would equip an EQS with summer tires is beyond me.

 

Mercedes offered no 20” tire option on my 450+ other than summer tires - this on cars being built last autumn. I took delivery a year ago tomorrow.
We can only guess at why this was the case.

In fact, at the 2023 450v4 site just now, only summer tires are shown.

 

I plan to keep my EQS in SE Florida so I got summer tires. Did I make a mistake?

 

I have Summer tires on mine as well, 11K miles on them, and now into my second Winter (got it last January). I have had no problem with the Summer tires on wet or dry roads in cold weather, but have not driven the car on snow or ice.

 

I think I have the same Goodyear F1’s as you.

 

I considered and should have qualified my comment for regions where there is cold weather. As has been pointed out above summer tires have **** traction in cold wet conditions.

 

Of course not....

 

I didn’t think so but with a blank statement like that I thought he was inferring summer tires are inherently bad for the car, even in warm weather.

 

No as the name implies they are summer tires which is to say they give better traction in warm conditions. The statement was based on the premise that summer tires are typically fitted to high performance cars to provide high cornering limits which doesn't seem applicable to an EQS use case given that high quality all seasons perform pretty well to begin with for normal driving. Now one could argue that in a warm climate region such as Florida or for an owner who wants to go through the exercise of swapping wheels semi-annually, the additional traction during warm weather could be considered safety margin in event that evasive maneuvers were needed.. This would be at the expense of replacing tires more often due to the lower wear rating.