When constructing an efficient wheel the key is to design a wheel that moves as little air as necessary. A wheel with a covered surface. Because, moving air costs energy.

In contrast would be the design of a turbine fan, shaped to move as much air as possible. Ironically, many aftermarket wheels for Teslas are shaped as fans blowing or sucking air depending on side.

But you may have noticed that electric cars are delivered with covered wheel designs. The improved range thanks to aerodynamics is much more important than the slight increase in weight. The OEMs understand this. So how can the wheel design make such a difference?

To answer that question we need a short lesson i aerodynamics: The air friction is proportional to the square of the speed between an object and the air. For example double speed creates four times the friction.

Think of a rolling wheel on a car, the tire touching the ground has zero speed through the air. The center of the wheel has the same speed as the body of the car. This means the very top of the wheel has double the speed of the car. And we know double speed is four times the friction.

One could say the wheel is four times as important to make aerodynamic than the body of the car, always.