I suspect if you have AWD, regular snow tires are a better bet than studded. Nokian Hakkapelitta is widely regarded as a good snow tire without studs, as are Bridgestone Blizzak and Michelin X-Ice.

I went through 6 winter seasons in Colorado with a Bolt (FWD) and Ioniq 6 and never got snow tires. But then I was able to work from home on the worst days, and CO is known for snow melting quickly.

Over the years, I only used studded tires once, and hated it. The noise and handling on dry pavement weren't worth the extra grip in the few snowy days. But VT may be very different, I assume snow and ice remain for extended periods?

 

Thanks, Rob. We do have snow and ice stick around for a bit here in VT, but I’d imagine not much different than in CO. I’m not really looking for studded, just found a good deal on a set that happened to be, so was looking for some feedback on those. Think I got my answer . Thanks.

 

How often do you drive on hardpack snow / dirt roads vs on plowed paved roads? As a Montrealer who mainly commutes to the city and occasionally hits the ski slopes, studded tires are WAY overkill (and not allowed in many places I drive to, such as the underground parking where I work).

The car is great in the snow (is yours AWD?) on regular 3-peak snow tires. I like the X-Ice, used to have Hakka 5s on my old Tesla but decided that since I was mainly driving on plowed roads they were overkill as well (they're optimized for driving on snow, whereas the x-ice are better on wet pavement)

 

Thanks, Vapor. Mostly driving city-ish here as well, so I'm coming to the same conclusion that I don't need to studded and that they might even be detrimental. Actually looking at these Hankooks at this point, if anyone has any feedback on them.

Hankook WiNter i*cept evo3 X W330A 255/45R20XL 105V BSW

 

I’m in the pacific NW and spend most of my time in the city so my snow experience with the Ioniq 5 is limited. That said, on our my winter road trip last year we spent over an hour through one of the passes in a storm with heavy snow falling on top of icy roads where taking it easy with just the stock tires and snow mode was pretty stable. So I’m feeling like dedicated snow tires is overkill for our car, but your weather may be worse or your bad weather trips more frequent.