Low-Speed EV TPMS: Small Wheels, Cheap Tyres, Real Cost Low-speed EVs run on small wheels and cheap tyres, so a pressure problem is often missed - until the range drops.

The tyre nobody checks

A low-speed electric vehicle — the small four-wheel LSEV, the electric three-wheeler, the neighbourhood car — usually runs on 10 to 13 inch wheels and tyres that cost very little. That is exactly why pressure is never checked. On a truck, a soft tyre is a safety event and somebody gets called. On a small electric vehicle, a soft tyre is just... a soft tyre, until the range falls or the tyre is destroyed.

The economics are less forgiving than they look:

• Range. Rolling resistance rises quickly as pressure drops, and these vehicles have small

battery packs. Ten percent pressure loss is a visible range loss, not a rounding error.

• Tyre life. Small tyres with a soft shoulder wear on the edge and then fail early — the

cheapest tyre becomes expensive when replaced twice as often.

• Load. Three-wheelers and small delivery EVs are often loaded to the limit. A soft tyre

under full load is where the failure starts.

Why a receiver-based system does not fit

A conventional TPMS needs a receiver, a wiring run and a place to mount a display. On a low-speed EV there is often no CAN network to join, no dashboard space, and a unit cost that cannot absorb a receiver at all.

That is the case for a phone-readable sensor: no receiver, no wiring, no display. Our BLE sensor is 2.4 GHz, 0-500 kPa gauge, ±2 kPa, IP67, on a replaceable CR1632 cell that lasts about 1.5 years and does not need re-pairing after a battery change. A dealer or fleet operator walks the row once a week and reads each vehicle on a phone.

What it does and does not do

It gives a recorded check. It does not give continuous monitoring or an in-cab alarm, because there is no receiver — and for a vehicle that does 40 km/h on a closed site, a weekly recorded check is usually the right trade.

It also measures pressure only: not temperature of the motor, not battery state.

If the vehicle does have a CAN or serial port and the operator wants live data, a receiver system is the correct answer instead — we build both, and we will say which one fits rather than sell the more expensive one.