For the past two years, Pirelli has supplied vehicle manufacturers with original equipment tyres tailored for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. The tyre maker is now offering Pirelli Elect products as replacement fitments and states that these are “now widely available” for aftermarket customers. Pirelli has integrated Elect into all P Zero, Cinturato and Scorpion lines, thereby offering the technology for summer, winter and all-season ranges.
The latest European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) data suggest 2021 was “a positive year of recovery for the industry”, especially in the replacement sector. The biggest drop was in the Original Equipment (OE) consumer tyres segment (down 8 per cent) mainly due to the ongoing new vehicle chip shortage.
While tyre makers serving the UK and European markets typically cover replacement demand for electric vehicle tyres with energy-efficient products they also aim at ICE-powered cars, in North America Goodyear has introduced a replacement market tyre that’s specifically tuned for EVs. It has launched the Goodyear ElectricDrive GT in size 255/45R19 104W XL and intends to expand the line-up in 2022.
Together, the increased utilisation of independent contractors on the supply side and record online search figures on the demand side show that MOT testing is booming. Considering that MOTs were put on hold for roughly four-and-a-half months between March and August (let’s not even mention the Northern Ireland MOT crisis), this is good news. Word of a coming MOT spike will be warmly welcomed by the tyre and aftermarket associations that lobbied government for the end of the MOT extension on both road safety and economic grounds. But what exactly does the apparent boom look like? And why does it matter to the tyre trade?
Autotech