I recently took delivery of a 2016 Prius i-Tech (Australian model) [ZVW50]. Needless to say, I am thrilled by the improvement over my beloved 2008 Prius 2nd Generation. I have a brief tyre question -- I was expecting LRR tyres like the Bridgesone Ecopia EP422 (or similar), but instead mine came with the Bridgestone Turanza T002. I'm curious to know whether US or European-delivered 2016 PRIUS comes with this particular tyre? Does anyone else have any experience with the Turanza T002?
According to Bridgestone's Australia site, they say the Turanza T002 is OEM for the 2016 Prius. Bridgestone Turanza T002 – Bridgestone Tyres I can't find much else about it. The T001 is listed as a summer tire, so I'm not sure if that means the T002 would need to be changed out for winter tires when it gets colder or not.
I couldn't spot anything more about it locally - but I found this on EURO Bridgestone site: Bridgestone ECOPIA and TURANZA Tyres Featured as Original Equipment on 2016 Toyota Prius which indicates that it's the 17" supplied in EU and Japan. It also seems to be only made in one size - for PRIUS. Mine is the base model (I've never seen an i-Tech here in Brisbane area), and has EP150 15" - I don't think it's a particularly good tyre, rough and not great grip compared with Bridgestones I've used in the past, but that may come as part of the LRR aspect.
Here in Europe we get the Bridgestone T002 for the 17 inch rims. It's a summer touring tire. Unlike N America, we switch tires in the winter, so that is something that is just assumed the owner will take care of. According to this UK website. The tires have a rolling resistence of C, wet braking at B. So basically, there are better tires in the aftermarket, which is true for about every OEM tire that I have experienced across many different auto manufacturers.
Bridgestone ECOPIA and TURANZA Tyres Featured as Original Equipment on 2016 Toyota Prius Tyre Bridgestone Turanza T002 215/45 R17 87W - Tyre Leader
