Apollo Tyres has unveiled a new eco-oriented tyre developed by its R&D facilities in Europe and India and offering a “best in class rolling resistance coefficient.” The tyre maker says the Apollo Amazer XP complies with BS VI, India’s equivalent of Euro 6 standards, and is electric vehicle ready. Apollo will initially only sell the Amazer XP range in India, including as an original equipment tyre for several vehicles.
Finnish manufacturer Nokian Tyres says it wants to develop and present a concept tyre entirely produced from renewable and recycled tyres by 2025. It hasn’t yet shared specific project details, but it appears this 100 per cent eco-friendly concept may well be a winter tyre. Nokian’s announcement creates this impression, at any rate.
The Michelin Group aims for complete carbon neutrality by 2050, and it seems that every little helps. The tyre maker’s efforts even extend to its communications, and so it was that when sharing news of a new product’s impending launch, Michelin encouraged invitees to take their ‘first eco-action’ by spurning e-mail contact in favour of text messages. It explained that this form of communication’s carbon footprint was 0.00125g, some 200 times smaller than that of an e-mail. I did not know that.
The corona crisis may have compelled Michelin to present its latest tyre range via an online launch, but a low-carbon virtual format was also a good fit for the tyre’s environmental ambitions. For the Michelin e.Primacy is not only a successor to the Energy Saver; it also represents a new approach to tyre development at Michelin and is also the first tyre to be released with an Environmental Product Declaration.
About a year ago Continental announced its selection as a tyre supplier to the ID.3, and under this arrangement is providing original equipment EcoContact 6 summer tyres, WinterContact TS 850P winter tyres and AllSeasonContact all-season tyres. But tyres are only one of a host of Continental products and technologies going into the new all-electric range. The company is also supplying computer equipment, brake technology, hose lines, heat pumps and driver assistance systems.
Bridgestone Turanza Eco tyres have become an original equipment for Volkswagen’s eighth generation Golf. The new model includes a number of cutting-edge technologies, such as a semi-autonomous mode and a new suspension technology improving its handling and driving dynamics. The custom-designed Turanza Eco tyres add to this technological focus. They are designed to enhance the Golf 8’s upgraded driving dynamics, with the tyre manufacturer’s Enliten Technology reducing rolling resistance, weight, and materials consumption. VW has also approved Nexen’s N’blue S and Winguard Sport 2, and Vredestein’s Sportrac 5 and Wintrac Pro tyres as OE for different iterations of the Golf 8.
Click here to learn more about Bridgestone’s Enliten Technology
Bridgestone has confirmed that it will supply its Turanza Eco as original equipment on the VW ID.3 electric car. In doing so, the tyre manufacturer joins Continental and Goodyear in supplying rubber for the model. The Turanza Eco is equipped with Bridgestone’s Enliten technology, which reduces weight. This is a popular characteristic among auto manufacturers, especially in the electric car segment, as they seek to reduce both weight and rolling resistance from the tyres.
The latest eco-friendly offering from Kumho is the Ecowing ES31. This successor to the KH27 is now available in a total of 46 sizes for 14- to 17-inch rim diameters, and around 70 percent of these carry an EU label grade of ‘B’ for rolling resistance. The sizes include all key fitments for bestselling small and medium-sized hatchbacks and saloons such as the VW Polo and Golf, Fiat 500, Audi A1, A2, A3 and A4, BMW 1 and 2 Series, Peugeot 208 and Renault Clio.
Introduced earlier in the year at the Geneva International Motor Show, the BluEarth-air EF21 represents the very latest from Yokohama in environmentally-friendly tyre design. The tyre comes with a coveted ‘AA’ label rating for rolling resistance and wet grip.
Bridgestone Corporation will supply solar car tyres to 32 teams participating in the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC), for which Bridgestone is the naming rights sponsor. The narrow, wide diameter tyres utilise Bridgestone’s ‘Ecopia with ologic’ fuel-efficient tyre technology.
Michelin, IFPEN, and Axens have announced the construction of an industrial-scale prototype of a plant for producing butadiene from bioethanol. The plant is located in France and is the first facility of its kind.
Pirelli may be synonymous with traditional ideas of high performance, but in 2019 the tyre manufacturer is increasingly adapting what this segment of the market can mean. Earlier in 2019, Pirelli reported that tyres made according to the company’s Green Performance strategy had risen from 20 per cent a decade ago to 29.8 per cent in 2018 – not only that, but Green Performance tyres accounted for 57.5 per cent of Pirelli’s High Value product sales. Now the manufacturer is embracing another “electrifying” direction in which to develop its high performance tyres in 2019.
ZC Rubber and Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology & Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences have announced their new Research & Development centre for rubber and novel environmental-friendly green materials. According to China’s largest tyre manufacturer, the centre will focus on the development on the rubber and materials for smart production, new energy and green material.
An agreement signed between Goodyear and the Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST) yesterday at the tyre maker’s Goodyear Innovation Center in Colmar-berg, Luxembourg will see the two parties focus upon investments in sustainable mobility and next-generation materials. Specifically, Goodyear engineers will collaborate with LIST in order to make tyres more environmentally friendly in regards to materials as well as their production and performance.
