If you’ve ever tried to get from point A to point B safely in severe winter weather, the kind with several inches of snow and slush and maybe a crust of ice on the roads, and you were rolling on all-season tires, you would know how treacherous and downright dangerous it can be. Even if you’re going nice and slow and taking every precaution, most all-season tires are just not capable of giving you the kind of control and traction you need to not get stuck or end up in a ditch, or maybe worse. All-season tires are designed for versatility and year-round performance, but most of them are not designed for deep snow and slush and difficult winter conditions. This is exactly what winter tires like the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect are designed for.

To remain mobile in the severe cold, a set of dedicated winter tires is the only thing that will help. Winter tires have a whole set of design features that are engineered specifically for winter driving, including a specialized winter tread pattern, different internal construction, and a tread compound that stays flexible at subfreezing temperatures for winter traction. While discussing electric vehicles (EVs), it is important to know that winter tires have a whole new set of requirements they need to meet here. EVs are heavier by several hundred pounds due to their big lithium battery packs, and EV winter tires need to be designed to accommodate that weight and an altered center of gravity, and that brings us to the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect.

Seeing the inroads that EVs are making in the automotive world, Pirelli took the proven Scorpion Winter tire and made some modifications for EVs, with the ELECT stamp on the sidewall denoting that it’s designed specifically for electric vehicles. Like any Pirelli product, the Scorpion Winter Elect is designed with diligent attention to detail and quality, with performance in snow and slush that’s. It’s packed with features and innovations that are geared specifically towards winter driving, but without the extra noise and clumsy handling that once went along with winter tires. Let’s go in for a closer look at the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect with this product line review:

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the features and benefits that make the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect a great choice for EVs, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids that need dependable winter traction:

• Asymmetric semi-directional tread pattern features a series of circumferential, angled, and lateral grooves that evacuate water, snow, and slush from the tire’s contact patch to resist hydroplaning
• Designed for low rolling resistance, helping to extend range and battery life for EVs
• Tread compound designed with a blend of carbon black, functionalized polymers, and natural rubber to remain flexible for traction in subfreezing weather
• Dense pattern of sipes and hair-thin slits that multiply the tire’s tread area and traction to chew through snow and slush
• Chamfered walls of tread grooves enhance traction and help keep road noise low
• Reinforced construction helps to deal with extra weight and torque of EVs
• Contact patch is optimized to put 3.5% more rubber in contact with the road for improved braking, traction, and handling performance
• Sustainably manufactured to cut waste of raw materials and use more environmentally-friendly materials and methods

Pros and Cons

When it comes to winter driving, the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect is a tire that offers more Pros than Cons:

PROS:

• Ride quality is refined and controlled, with reduced noise, good road manners, and driver feedback
• Handing is predictable and confident on snowy, wet, or dry roads
• 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake certified for severe winter service
• Winter traction is capable on every kind of winter road other than sheet ice
• Backed by the strong Pirelli name

CONS:

• Not usable in warmer weather (temperatures above 45 degrees Fahrenheit)
• No limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage

SimpleTire’s view on Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect tires

Are you familiar with SimpleTire’s SimpleScore system? SimpleScore is the ratings method that our team devised to give you a quick and easy overview of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We look at the tire’s specs, manufacturer information, and customer reviews, then represent that information via a 1-10 score for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore. In the case of the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect, the SimpleScore numbers look like this:

Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect:

Traction: 9.1 Handling: 9.0 Longevity: 8.5 Overall average SimpleScore: 8.9

If you’re a driver who’s already owned a set of Pirelli tires, you probably know that the bar is already set fairly high for the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect What you can expect are great road manners, dependable handling, capable traction, and a refined ride, all with quality and workmanship that are top-notch. It’s true – this is a tire that meets all those expectations, along with tenacious traction for some of the worst winter weather. Its innovative sipe design helps to continue delivering confident grip even as the tire’s tread depth gets thinner, and the asymmetric, directional tread design does an excellent job of preventing hydroplaning as it channels water away from the tire’s contact patch on wet roads

A generation ago, winter tires might have been known to be a little clumsy, sluggish, and cumbersome when it comes to handling. Not true with the Scorpion Winter Elect; reviews point to steering response that’s quick and precise, and cornering ability that’s consistent and predictable, if maybe not quite up to the nimble standards you’d expect of a performance tire. At highway speed, the Scorpion Winter Elect is composed and quiet, with refined ride quality and road manners that don’t get jittery even on rough or uneven pavement surfaces. Braking is equally impressive, with the Pirelli’s tread pattern and optimized contact patch being able to bring you to a complete stop confidently and safely with shorter braking distances than you might expect on snowy roads. It’s all certified with the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake rating, a traction rating that’s pretty hard to attain for any tire in the tire world.

Internal construction of the Scorpion Winter Elect has been reinforced to deal with the extra weight, mass, horsepower, and torque of EVs, which also has the benefit of a more rigid sidewall and shoulder for a definite payoff in handling and cornering ability. The custom blended formulation of the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect has a great deal of bearing on that strong performance when it comes to traction; it’s engineered to stay flexible at subfreezing temperatures when other tires will stiffen up and lose their ability to dig in and deliver grip on snow and slush. Like any winter tire, the tread compound of the Scorpion Winter Elect is softer and more pliable for winter grip, but that also means it’s likely to wear quickly on warmer days; Pirelli recommends against using this tire if daily temperatures are above 40-45 degrees F.

Vehicles the Pirelli Scorpion Winter Elect is a good replacement tire for

This is a tire you could consider if you live in an area that sees hard winters with lots of ice and snow that sticks around for several weeks or mnonths. It could be a great replacement tire for vehicles such as:

• Tesla Model 3
• Hyundai iONIQ 6
• Polestar 2
• Toyota Mirai
• Ford Mustang Mach-E
• Nissan Leaf
• BMW i4
• Audi e-Tron GT
• Porsche Taycan