As we continue to shift gears toward low-carbon transportation, it is important to consider all of the components that go into vehicle production. Tires, which are predominantly made from fossil-based raw materials, contribute significantly to environmental pollution through particles and chemicals released during their use. These pollutants travel via air, water, and terrestrial pathways, compounding their environmental impact.
However, there are opportunities for innovation, with companies like Continental and Michelin driving the development of more sustainable tire solutions across the value chain.
Treading More Lightly
The rise of electric vehicles (EVs) has helped to catalyze demand for automotive components that can reduce emissions and improve efficiency, including more sustainable tires. Michelin offers a range of tires specifically designed to improve the efficiency of electric vehicles. Its advancements in reducing rolling resistance directly translate into lower energy consumption and improved mileage. According to the company, its new e.Primacy All Range tire can provide up to 20 more miles of EV battery range and last up to 13,000 miles longer than leading competitors.
Continental’s UltraContact NXT series tires, launched in 2023, have helped set a new bar for sustainability in tire manufacturing. These tires contain up to 65 percent sustainable materials, including renewable materials, like bio-based silica made from agricultural waste; recycled materials, including recycled rubber and steel; and ISCC PLUS mass balance certified materials, including synthetic rubber made from biobased, bio-circular, and/or circular feedstock. UltraContact NXT tires also carry the highest EU tire rating in rolling resistance, wet braking, and exterior noise, underscoring Continental’s commitment to improving sustainability without sacrificing safety or performance.
Technological innovations like this extend beyond automotive tires. For example, in 2023, Michelin unveiled its Air X Sky Light tire, a lightweight, next-generation aviation tire designed to reduce aircraft weight, energy consumption, and emissions.
Tire companies can also reduce emissions and waste by extending tire lifespans. This can be done by improving durability, as well as innovative solutions for reuse and end-of-life recycling. Continental has been retreading truck and bus tires to extend their service lives for over 120 years. Retreaded tires can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 50 percent compared to new tires and contain up to 85 percent recycled and renewable materials. In 2013, Continental opened the ContiLifeCycle retreading and recycling plant in Hanover, Germany, where the company reported that, as of 2023, it had extended the service life of 900,000 truck and bus tires.
Meanwhile, Michelin is exploring another way to reduce the environmental impact of tires by pioneering research into tire wear particle emissions. Michelin has created a system to capture, count, and characterize tire abrasion particles. By gaining better understanding of the environmental impact of these particles, Michelin hopes to help devise new solutions to reduce their emissions.
Driving Accountability and Sustainability Up and Down the Value Chain
Beyond working to reduce the environmental impact of their tires, Continental and Michelin are investing in efforts to improve sustainability and accountability in their value chains and to broadly support the transportation industry’s low-carbon transition.
Continental has committed to achieving carbon-neutral production by 2040 at the latest. It has purchased electricity for its production plants from only renewable sources since 2020 and is integrating innovative production processes to help achieve that goal. For example, at its production facility in Lousado, Portugal, it is using a solar-powered electric steam boiler to generate steam for vulcanization, a key process in converting raw rubber into an elastic form used for tires.
The company is also working to advance supply chain transparency in partnership with Security Matters (SMX), an innovative tech platform specializing in digital tracking using unalterable chemical-based barcodes. The companies have developed a dedicated marker technology that can trace the geographical origin of natural rubber in tires, which allows for verification of responsibly sourced natural rubber throughout the tire supply chain. Continental has committed to ensuring that all materials used in its tire production will originate from responsible sources by 2050 at the latest.
Meanwhile, Continental and Michelin are also helping to advance the industry’s critical transition to EVs. Michelin offers and EV transition tool to transportation and logistics customers that uses existing journey data to recommend which vehicles they should prioritize for replacement with EVs based on cost savings and range assessment. Its EV mobile app also gives them insights into charging behaviors and activities to help reduce EV downtime and facilitate driver reimbursement. Continental also has a number joint ventures aimed at developing next-generation EV technologies, such a fully automatic EV charging robot and a self-charging solar-powered vehicle.
Charting a Course for the Future
Tire manufacturing companies like Continental and Michelin showcase how sustainability can be embedded into products, operations, and throughout the value chain to help meet the demands of modern transportation and achieve low-carbon mobility. By doing so, not only can they help tackle climate change, but they can also pave the way for long-term success in an evolving market. Their innovation serves as a blueprint for other manufacturers, demonstrating how profitability and sustainability can go hand in hand.