Which state has the highest retail tire prices in the country? It’s not a data point that anyone, as far as we know, compiles, but artificial intelligence suggests that it’s California. What we can be sure about, though, is that in about three years, California drivers will be paying more for tires than they are today. [some emphasis, links added]
Significantly more.
It won’t happen because the tire makers and retailers will suddenly raise prices. It will happen because California’s hyperactive government launched yet another new rule last week.
Beginning in 2029, all new replacement tires sold in the state will have to be “at least as energy efficient, on average, as tires sold on new vehicles,” according to the California Energy Commission, which bragged that it had “approved the nation’s first replacement tire efficiency standards.”
Supposedly, the rule will help consumers pocket extra cash due to the tires’ low rolling resistance. The CEC estimates the savings will reach $1 billion a year in gasoline and electricity costs.
Companies that actually make tires and therefore might know what they are talking about say the savings are a third-rate tall tale. The new compliant tires will cost far more than the few extra dollars each the CEC reckons.
During the rule’s comments period, Goodyear said prices could spike by hundreds of dollars per tire while the rule will eventually eliminate about 70% of the current replacement tire market.
In a much less defiant tone, Dunlop Tires North America said the state should not “unintentionally compromise the performance, choices, affordability and competition that consumers depend upon from the replacement tire market” by focusing on a single tire component.
In doing exactly that, the Energy Commission bypassed safety concerns.
Low-rolling-resistance tires don’t grip the road as well as conventional tires. Energy-efficient tires have a smaller contact patch, so the distance needed to stop increases while driving on wet surfaces becomes even more treacherous.
The CEC’s claim that consumers will save money is a fig leaf to cover the fetish of a state obsessed with squeezing every last molecule of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
Californians know by now that when someone from the government swears the latest plan will save money, they will soon have to reach for their wallets.
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