Sustainability, new mobility, technology shaping tire industry

Remember this moment.

Because it's an important one in the tire industry's evolution. It is a moment where eras transition.

Richard Kramer, Goodyear chairman, CEO and president, discussed this evolution during a recent presentation to business leaders across the greater Akron area. The tire industry, he told them, is at an inflection point, one of "those moments and events that are often unexpected, but after which nothing is ever the same."

Throughout the industry's history there have been plenty of inflection points. Take, for instance, synthetic rubber. It's a critical tire material that was mastered during WWII when natural rubber supply shortages challenged tire makers to find alternatives, Kramer said.

And the pneumatic truck tire? Its development was driven by increases in military transportation, Kramer said.

Today, there are new forces at play, spurring change and challenging the industry in a new era. It's an era that will be defined by new technologies in the automotive space and big ideas across tire sectors.

So, remember this moment.

Because three key factors—new mobility, sustainability and technology—are shaping it.

Today's vehicles may have a little more giddy-up under the hood—or, rather, under the floorboards. And the emergence of electrification brings new expectations for tires, which need to adjust to handle the weight and torque that EVs throw at them.

That's especially challenging, considering that EVs wear tires faster and customers expect the tires to last longer. Compounding the challenges of building more durable, longer-lasting tires is the urgency to do it with more sustainable materials—maybe even a few that haven't been used before.

From the outside, that may appear daunting, but it's nothing the industry can't handle.

"First and foremost, keep in mind, the tire manufacturers make tires to fit the vehicles that they are being spec'd for," Tracey Norberg, U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association senior vice president and general counsel, told Rubber News. "They are aiming to meet their customers' needs from the OE perspective and consumer demand from a performance perspective. And so, in some ways, the EV market is no different (when you look) at what those vehicles demand and look at what customers demand."

Connected technology, likewise, is taking tires to new places and redefining the driver experience.

That trend was evident early this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"It was quite interesting to step back and realize that—maybe 10 years ago, when the car manufacturers were presenting new cars and models, it was heavily focused on the cars, the performance and, of course, some experience around that as a driver and as a passenger," Alexis Garcin, Michelin North America Inc. chairman and president, said during a roundtable discussion earlier this year. "But, this year, clearly the overwhelming theme was all of our experiences, and the car was a support to the overall experience, but the main focus was experience.

"... Some are calling it the digital chassis—we rather call it the software-defined vehicle," he added. "And we believe that we—Michelin—have a role to play in software-defined vehicles. Because tires are part of the connected ecosystem."

Connected tire technology isn't new—think: TPMS (tire pressure monitoring systems) or RFID (radio frequency identification). But it is evolving in this moment to meet the demands of new mobility and consumer expectations.

And tire makers are evolving with it.

Bridgestone, for instance, is RFID-focused.

The tire maker recently told Rubber News that one facet of its $550 million expansion project at its Warren County, Tenn., truck/bus tire factory, is to ensure that every tire rolling out of the facility is equipped with RFID.

Michelin has, for more than a decade, invested in the development of RFID, and its aim is to equip all of its tires with the technology in the coming years.

"Because—let's face it—of course we can track the wear of the tire independent of the vehicle," Garcin said. "But once we connect the tire to the vehicle, we can see where we can really be more accurate and then gain accuracy in a way to predict tire wear information and at what time should a consumer rotate his or her tires.

"… We believe there is an opportunity that we are already working at with several OEMs to make sure that we can provide a complete, seamless tire experience through those software-defined vehicles and providing consumers with much more predictive information instead of reactive information."

To do that—seamlessly connect the tire's knowhow to the car (and, honestly, the entirety of the mobility infrastructure) to provide more predictive information—you need data. Mind-boggling amounts of data.

Data that needs to be untangled, each data point pulled out and pieced back together through analytics and algorithms. When you do that effectively, you not only help to create better user experiences or help to optimize fleet management, you move closer to autonomous driving.

And it turns out autonomous vehicles are going to need some pretty smart, well-connected tires.

So Goodyear—like Michelin, Bridgestone and others—is focused on developing those kinds of tires.

"Tires are the only point of contact between the vehicle and the road, and we view our products as an integral component to the complete vehicle system," Kramer said.

"Today, every new vehicle comes with a tire pressure monitoring system. We've taken that a step further with a combination of sensors and algorithms that measure tire temperature, tire wear, tire load and even friction on the road."

And just as inflection points have done before, this new mobility moment could lead to reimagining the tire completely. Because the rise of fleets and autonomous vehicles could bring airless tires to the forefront.

Nonpneumatic tire technology "is expected to have the greatest effect in areas such as fleet business and delivery services," Ted Choi, Hankook Tire America Corp. vice president of marketing strategy, told Rubber News. "In these areas, the introduction of airless tires will greatly benefit as downtime due to tire punctures or maintenance issues creates a cost issue."

And when it comes to NPT, Hankook, Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear and Continental are among the major players exploring the concept for every tire sector. And when combined with the advances in material science, virtual modeling and simulation, the potential for NPT grows.

There's an underlying urgency propelling tire innovation. And this pursuit of sustainability is at the center of the industry's vision.

"We believe that what is good for our business must be good for the world at large," Garcin said earlier this year. "And minimizing the impact of the business and the products on the natural environment is part of who we (at Michelin) are."

Michelin, of course, is not alone.

Every major tire maker is setting—and achieving—sustainability goals as they relate to operations, products and manufacturing. They're pursuing carbon neutrality, committing to 100-percent sustainable materials tires and seeking to master performance traits that allow their tires to contribute to more sustainable mobility.

And all of that, Norberg said, is a culmination of what tire makers always have been working toward.

"I would say it's an evolution and maturity in the industry," she said of sustainability strides tire makers are making today. "I think that this industry has been forward-thinking for a long time, but maybe the new part is that they are more able to translate these goals that have been long term into immediate accomplishments and benchmarks toward sustainable development goals."

The accomplishments, she noted, are impressive, and the benchmarks significant. That's due, in part, to the conversations around sustainability. As the issue becomes top-of-mind for customers and consumers, the visibility of the tire makers' sustainability efforts becomes more apparent.

"You can thumb through Rubber News or Tire Business or any of the other publications (and see stories) talking about all of the sustainable materials that our members are actually implementing in the production of tires," Norberg said. "They are everything from different types of oils and processing aids to different types of alternatives to natural or synthetic rubber. Other members are reincorporating recycled materials, and we are seeing this across the industry."

Kramer is quick to note that Goodyear has quite a few of those sustainable materials accomplishments under its R&D umbrella.

"We've invested in new technologies and partnerships. We've set bold and aggressive goals for new product development—and enhanced our process for bringing those products to market faster. And we've even established a dedicated unit within our global operations and technology team, specifically called Beyond Tires," Kramer said.

"Today, you can buy a tire that has sustainable soybean oil in it that takes the place of petroleum, or rice husk ashes that take the place of sand-based silica," Kramer said. "We're working on further bio-friendly materials, such as methane-based carbon black to reach our 100-percent sustainability goal by the end of the decade."

And with sustainability goals in mind, tire makers are investing in more efficient operations, the kind that support carbon neutrality.

Bridgestone's Warren County expansion project is about making more tires, more sustainably—inside and out. Part of the funding is dedicated to ensuring that the company's Enliten technologies can be effectively employed to enhance tire performance that leads to reductions in CO2 and tire emissions.

Michelin, likewise, has invested in its North American operations, not just to expand capacity and capabilities, but to ensure greater efficiency. Perhaps the most prominent example came in March, when the Greenville, S.C.-based tire maker said it would pour $220 million into its Nova Scotia operations over the coming three years.

The investment is intended to meet new mobility demands. But a portion of that funding is aimed at converting manufacturing processes in the factories to electric power. Michelin also looks to reduce the plants' overall energy consumption and increase the use of renewable energy, such as wind or solar.

These are the kinds of initiatives that Michelin has been focused on across it operations.

"When you look at all the investments we make across our sites, I can say that we have a double-digit percentage of those investment dollars spent and dedicated to minimize or improve the impact we have on the environment," Garcin said in February.

Hankook is investing in more sustainable operations, too, noting that it will be a focus for the $1.6 billion expansion at its Clarksville, Tenn., plant.

And when it comes to sustainable operations, Nokian holds its Dayton, Tenn., plant among some of the industry's most efficient, saying it's the only one in the world with LEED v4 Silver certification. With solar panels Nokian harnesses the sun to fully power its administrative building, making that facility LEED v4 gold certified.

But it's not just about being more sustainable. It is about being more sustainable together.

So the industry is collaborating to take on the biggest sustainability challenges and ensure they are met with urgency. Whether that's tackling the 6ppd-quinone conundrum or addressing tire wear particles, the industry is committing to moving forward—together—more sustainably.

"We are very much taking a global industry approach to sustainability and recognizing that we represent a global manufacturing sector," Norberg said. "And so we're communicating on sustainable materials, on tire road wear particles, materials issues I'm sure you're well aware of. (We're) looking at those from a materials innovation approach and recognizing that we do have a role to play in advancing safe and sustainable mobility.

"We are really trying to be front and center in a transparent and proactive way on these issues as they really transform how this industry not only is regulated, but how it presents itself."

David Manley, Tire Business staff, contributed to this report.