The best way I can describe the tires is that they have far, far more grip than they have any right to given their size. For street use, the EP500s are more than sufficient and I've never felt like I was wanting for grip. For AutoX, they do okay, but definitely severely hamper the performance of the car. It's RWD, so you're not over stressing those narrow fronts too much when you really push it, but it still likes to understeer more than I'd like, but I think that's also a symptom of being unable to turn DSC all the way off, because it feels a lot more balanced when I put it in the "everything, including ABS off" mode.

I've got plenty of experience with hot hatches; my first car was an APR stage 2 tuned Mk5 GTI, and I regularly drive my friends' FoST and FoRS. It definitely doesn't feel quite as sporty as those, but I find it far more fun as an around town daily. We've also had an F-Type R, ZL1, and M3, and while they're phenomenal experiences and super fun to drive, any time you're even pushing them a little on public roads, there's just that incessant nag in the back of my mind both knowing the car can give so much more, but also that doing so is insanely risky. I feel like I get to push my i3 a lot more on public roads without being downright reckless, and it just makes it way more fun to drive because of that.

With all that said, the TL;DR is that they're way more fun than they have any right to be, and ignore preconceptions or hangups on the performance numbers you might have,