Grippier sipes and softer rubber compounds mean higher rolling resistance when driving on winter tyres. They wear more quickly than summer tyres too, but anyone who fits these products can maximise tyre mileage by adapting their driving style and treating the tyres with care. Continental offers tips for using winter tyres in the most resource-efficient way possible.
With the addition of a new high-and low-temperature rolling resistance testing machine at its tyre and wheel testing laboratory in Suzhou, China, testing, consulting, information and compliance services firm Smithers is equipped to conduct rolling resistance testing on PCR, LT and light-duty TBR tyres at ambient temperatures between 40°C to 40°C (-40°F to 104°F). The new machine will be fully operational and begin running client data this month.
Indian consumers will soon benefit from tyre performance requirements very similar to those covering tyres sold in the UK and Europe. The country’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) announced the upcoming regulatory change on 28 June 2022.
In its recent test of ten summer tyres in the performance size 245/40 R19 98Y, Auto Bild reports that an original equipment tyre tested “by chance” alongside the aftermarket models delivered an “alarming result” in the wet braking test. Elaborating on this strongly worded evaluation, the motoring magazine explains that the OE specification tyre had been tweaked for optimally low rolling resistance – and thus minimal fuel consumption and CO2 emissions – at the expense of stopping distance on wet roads.
Continental is introducing a further five AllSeasonContact dimensions, and these tyres are the first in the range to offer an EU label rating of A for fuel efficiency. Furthermore, four of the five new sizes are XL rated for heavier loads; Continental says this combination “makes the tyre the ideal retrofit option for electric vehicles, as it can carry the higher average weight and extend the range of e-vehicles.”
Continental shares that it has further improved the rolling resistance properties of a specific OEM EcoContact 6 tyre, and by doing so has set a “new rolling-resistance benchmark for the entire industry.” This rolling resistance properties of this tyre, which Continental supplies to Ford as original equipment, now surpass the EU tyre label’s ‘A’ category by more than 15 per cent.
Grantham-based retreader Vaculug has achieved a world-first with the launch of its KT01. Testing at the Applus+ IDIADA testing ground in Spain has verified that this latest addition to the Vaculug portfolio has a lower rolling resistance coefficient than is required for a new tyre to gain an EU label rating of A for this criterion.
Continental is rolling out the latest-generation Conti EcoPlus range, the Conti EcoPlus 3+. It states that thanks to these tyres’ reduced rolling resistance and higher fuel efficiency, it can offer fleet operators “an optimised commercial vehicle tyre.”
Continental reports that its share of the tyre market for fully electric vehicles is growing, with six of the ten global highest-volume manufacturers of electric vehicles selecting the brand as original equipment in 2020. This includes fitment on key electric models like the Tesla Model 3 and Model S, and Volkswagen’s ID.3, as well as with manufacturers aiming to gain a foothold in the European electric vehicle market, such as BYD, one of China’s largest car producers.
Improving a tyre’s wear efficiency by up to 30 per cent while decreasing rolling resistance by up to six per cent without affecting any other performance area sounds like a tall order. But Bridgestone says that it has achieved this together with partners Arlanxeo and Solvay. The three firms presented Techsyn, the fruit of two years of collaboration, during an online presentation this afternoon.
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.
47 year old Finn Jussi Kallioniemi has been officially confirmed as the new Guinness World Record holder for the fastest time to push a car one mile.
The new World Record was set on October 24 at the tyre manufacturer’s test track at Nokia in Finland, and Kallioniemi’s time of 13 minutes and 26 seconds beat the previous record by almost two minutes.
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.
Many international manufacturers view a good EU tyre label result as a benchmark of product performance. At the end of 2018, Prinx Chengshan’s research and development centre in China began work on its ‘AA1’ project, with the aim of developing a product achieving the best label category for wet grip, rolling resistance and noise. The tyre maker reports that it’s achieved its goal.
Nokian Tyres
Prinx Chengshan