This all sounds very unlikely. There is no such thing as an 'EV tyre' and TPMS sensors are normally £5-10.
See mcb100's comment below. Seems like EVs are only for the well heeled. I could get 4 tyres for my average sized ICE car for the price of one of those 'EV specials'.
I don't think it's about being well-heeled. Someone out there must be stupid enough to pay nearly £400 a corner, but it's completely unnecessary.
Only if the prices for supposed 'non-EV tyres' are far cheaper. They aren't that much cheaper. As I've said many times about higher tyre prices over the last 10 years, most of it is because:
a) a move from car manufacturers to fit larger diameter and wider tyres to new cars - whether their weight, handling abilities or performance actually demand them, and;
b) similarly, the car manufacturers are not using 'standardised' tyre size combinations as they used to, seemingly fitting all manner of combinations when, in my view, the 'common' ones from before would've done a fine job, but would cost between 25% and 50% less because of economies of scale.
They, especially the latter, would mean that the cost of replacing tyres would be reduced significantly, with the former contributing to tyres and suspension parts lasting a good deal longer and keeping maintenance costs down.
This is why I believe there has been been collusion - even if it is 'unofficial' - between car manufacturers and tyre manufacturers, who IMHO likely supply OEM tyres at a very low price to 'sweeten' the deal. In the end, both win out because they get significantly more business from replacing tyres and car parts more often and, for tyres, from more diverse stocks, where they can charge far more.
As EVs are much heavier and can apply far more torque than equivalent sized ICE cars, they need large tyres anyway, but IMHO the other factors still come into play, especially as both manufacturer industries rightly believe that EV oweners have a decent amount of cash to splash, given the cost of buying the cars in the first place.
Unlike with (say) clothing where we can buy a t-shirt with or without a 'tick' logo on the front that is otherwise the same quality, but baries in price by over 50%, you can't swap out an 'unusual' tyre (or wheel) size on a car because legally or physically (e.g. due to the bigger brakes) it cannot take the 'standard' one that costs half as much.
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