Winter daily?

[KTC]

Picture for attention.

Serious question (yes I did a search), but wondering for those who live in snowy/icy places, have you / do you plan to drive your Taycan frequently through the winter? If so:
- Are you using the stock setup with all-season tires? If so, how are they on packed snow / ice with careful slow driving? (no judgement if you're using stock summer tires)
- Are you switching to a dedicated winter tire set? I've priced out a winter Vossen 20" set w/ Pirelli P Zero Winters for about $5.5k.
- Does the car clear heavy snow piled up on the ground on unplowed smaller streets? I'm less inclined to use the Taycan as a snowplow than my M3.
- Are you just going to switch to a different car? For example, we have a Volvo SUV but that has also been slippery in prior years.

I know these are subjective questions, but historically I've switched out for winter sets on prior cars, but if the snow is super thick then I'd take the SUV instead. However, this might mean putting winter wheels on both the Taycan and my SUV, and that's quite a pricey solution.

Picture below of a prior winter.

Thanks for your experience and thoughts.

 

[Jhenson29]

We haven’t had our Taycan through a winter yet, but it’ll continue to be my wife’s DD. It’s on 20” all-season tires. We won’t be switching them.

I did ask her if she was interested in winter tires. Her eyes got squinty and her face got frowny. Kind of like Gilbert Gottfried. I think all she heard was “do you want to spend more money?” I took it as a “no”.

She drove a Panamera 4 with all seasons year round before that. It did fine, so I’m not concerned. (And apparently neither is she)

We don’t get a ton of snow around here. Maybe a few bad storms each year plus some more light snow here or there. Our roads can look like the bottom pic a few times a year, but the plows usually get it cleared pretty quickly. At least on the Missouri side of the river. Illinois is a different story. I don’t think they’ve discovered snow plows yet.

 

[B61]

I’m switching to 20” winter tyres… we might have up to 30cm of snow (of course i’m not going to drive in such conditions), but last winter was snow-free…but temperatures goes down to -10 degrees C or even below…

 

[PanameraFrank]

I cannot stress enough how important winter tires are. It's potentially life and death if you ever drive in snowy/icy conditions. All season tires = no season tires. They are a lot like wearing a seat belt.. completely unnecessary until they literally save your life.

Winter tires these days also do just fine in spring/fall conditions. You lose a little performance and a little range but barely worse than all seasons in spring/fall.

I put winter tires on my Taycan and it's the best car I've driven in wintery conditions. The air suspension allows you to clear reasonable snow, as much as with any other sedan, but you still have to be mindful of clearance. Love taking my Taycan on my ski trips, really fantastic.

Also keep in mind you're not actually paying for winter tires, you're just paying to have them installed & stored if necessary. You're saving the tread on your other tires so it's all the same. Plenty of companies do mobile install and will swap tires on the rims in 30 minutes for cheap.

Personally I just swap the tires on the rim and my Turbo Aeros have held up just fine. I think I pay $200 twice a year? Simple.

 

[TIM]

Drove it through last winter as a DD with dedicated winter tires. Went pretty smooth.
I live in the Swiss mountain at an altitude of 1'100m (3'600 feet).
Even it's an AWD it handle more like a RWD especially in tight curves?

 

[andrewket]

I live outside of DC. It gets below freezing here and we do get snow on occasion. I was not willing to accept the compromise of all season tires. I picked up a barely used set of aero wheels and mounted P-zeros winter tires. I swap the wheels in my garage myself. All in it takes about an hour including clean up.

I don’t understand buying a six figure performance car and then compromising on one of the most important parts of the car.

 

[f10tt]

I live outside of DC. It gets below freezing here and we do get snow on occasion. I was not willing to accept the compromise of all seasons tires. I picked up a barely used set of aero wheels and mounted P-zeros. I swap the wheels in my garage myself. All in it takes about an hour including clean up.

I don’t understand buying a six figure performance car and then compromising on one of the most important parts of the car.

I'm in the same area as you and spec'd my car with Contis from the factory because I've never had an issue with all seasons in this area on any car. But for this year I picked up an older G55 and I'll be running that with a dedicated set of winters because they came with the car.

 

[Vercingetorix]

 

[KTC]

Thanks all for your answers. Just to clarify, I'm not questioning the value or advantage of winters over all-seasons. My last several cars all had dedicated summer and winter sets for that exact reason.

The question stems more from the fact that 1. if the Taycan's ground clearance is low enough that it'll become a big snowplow, then maybe it'll stay in the garage and is not worth getting winters, and 2. some folks believe the extra weight of the car helps w/ increased traction. The latter is not intuitive to me because all I can think of is the braking distance or emergency handling of a 6000 lbs flying mass. I've also never had these Conti ProContact RX before, and have no idea how well they do in light snow.

Also keep in mind you're not actually paying for winter tires, you're just paying to have them installed & stored if necessary. You're saving the tread on your other tires so it's all the same. Plenty of companies do mobile install and will swap tires on the rims in 30 minutes for cheap.

Personally I just swap the tires on the rim and my Turbo Aeros have held up just fine. I think I pay $200 twice a year? Simple.

I especially appreciate this post coming from someone who lives in my area. Unfortunately for us with 21" wheels right now most places don't have snow tires available, and with global shortage there also aren't too many 20" winter wheel+tire packages available. The cheapest for a set of wheels + tire is probably 5k right now.

 

[Vercingetorix]

I also have the Procontact RX and am convinced they will be Crapcontact RXs in the snow. I am guessing they are optimized for one thing only, low rolling resistance. Hydroplaning has been a problem for me at highway speeds. I bought a set of 20” wheels on eBay for winters and they came with RXs to match my 21” stock RXs. I will have a lot of experience with these before I get to upgrade. Personally I would buy the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4 for winter in Seattle and park it in the few days of snow Seattle gets. Spend $100 for Autosocks in case you get caught out.

 

[MyA]

I lI’ve up here in Montréal Canada where we receive a fair amount of snow with snow storms as big as 30-40 cm of snow. Thankfully, the municipal and provincial road maintenance structures are very efficient.

Nonetheless, I have been driving a Panamera 4, a Jaguar F-Type all year long through several winters with no problems. and now the Taycan 4S for the upcoming years.

I have driven often in conditions resembling your pictures.

Winter tires are mandatory here, so no hesitation.
I always size down for winter and my Porsche dealer installed the 20” Pirelli P-Zero’s Elect winter tires.

 

[Scott Allen]

I live in the Great Lakes snow belt. We average 120" per year. I drove my Taycan Turbo last winter but not when there was significant snow on the ground.
Just don't want to risk an accident.

 

[PanameraFrank]

I especially appreciate this post coming from someone who lives in my area. Unfortunately for us with 21" wheels right now most places don't have snow tires available, and with global shortage there also aren't too many 20" winter wheel+tire packages available. The cheapest for a set of wheels + tire is probably 5k right now.

Sorry, I always go on a rant in winter tire threads just because of accidents I've seen that could have been prevented.

That is a tough one on the 21s and I'm not sure what to do about that.

What I can tell you is that with 20" winter tires on the car is just superb in the snow. I go to Crystal weekly during the winter and also plenty of times through both passes and feel just absolutely rock solid in the Taycan. Moreso than in any other car I've had, including a Macan. The low center of gravity and AWD system with the two motors is just superb.

During the big snowstorm in Seattle last year I was darting around without a second thought. The only time I had an issue was when trying to get back into my old driveway with a good 2 feet of snow, there was a dip before it went up and the wheelbase + clearance caused it to float. But even then I was able to back her out of trouble and that was going to ruin any sedan's day and maybe even my Macan.

I have the Scorpion winters but I might switch to the PZeros next year. The Scorpions definitely aren't super high performance buy they feel quite safe. I put them on at the end of October and leave them on until April, they do great in the 40-50 degree rain so no problems there.

 

[amelen]

I drove my Panamera all winter in North NJ on all-season tires (and we live up a huge hill). I'm sure the Taycan would do even better (better weight distribution).

I know tons of folks in the area (or even more north) that daily even their RWD cars with winter tires. When you get to low temps, the tires make all the difference.

 

[Ll312]

Live in the Chicago burbs and just put on some p zero winters. No snow yet but plan to daily it unless we have blizzard like conditions. Was able to find some 20 inch oz rims from tire rack that fit.

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