Goodyear showed a tire made of environmentally friendly materials
Goodyear has shown off a tire made almost entirely of what it claims are ‘sustainable materials.’ The company promises to increase this percentage to 100% by the end of the decade.
The new tire also has lower rolling resistance compared to the ‘reference tire’. Less rolling resistance means less friction with the road, making the car more energy efficient.
At last year’s CES, Goodyear showed off a 70% sustainable tire that included 13 ‘special ingredients’ in nine tire components. The company wants to work with suppliers to bring this tire to market and start selling it to car owners in 2023.
At this year’s CES, they’ve improved their offering and are now showcasing a 90% sustainable tire with 17 ingredients in 12 components. The new tire has passed Goodyear’s internal testing and all relevant regulatory tests.
Ingredients include recycled materials and relatively new uses of natural compounds.
Goodyear’s new tire uses vegetable oil and used tires, soybean oil to keep the rubber flexible as temperatures change, silica from rice husk waste to improve traction and reduce fuel consumption, recycled polyester and steel cord to strengthen the structure, and renewable pine resin for traction.
Goodyear defines a sustainable material as ‘a biological/renewable, recycled material, or one that can be manufactured using other environmentally friendly methods to conserve resources and/or reduce emissions, including materials with a mass balance.’
The company already uses some sustainable materials in some of its tires, and soybean oil appears in eight product lines.
