Continental has created specialized tires to meet EVs’ unique demands. Battery electric vehicles are heavier than traditional combustion-powered cars because their battery pack is quite heavy. The lithium-ion pack in a Tesla Model S, for example, weighs 1,200 lbs. Carmakers place this mass low in the car to keep the center of gravity low, but the mass is still there and must be supported by the car’s tires. With that challenge in mind, Continental has launched the first line of EV-optimized tires built to the new HL load index code, which adds nearly 25 percent to the tires’ load-carrying capacity compared to standard-load SL tires. The HL code also specifies a 10 percent capacity increase beyond that of XL code tires, which were the previous high-load champs.