Eco-Friendly Tyres Save Fuel
A new group of car tyres is coming on to the tyre market; eco-friendly tyres. These tyres aim to reduce their carbon footprint by making lighter contact with the road, thereby reducing the resistance so that less fuel is needed to propel the car.
As the European Union have introduced several CO2 restrictions in an attempt to reduce the CO2 emissions caused by road transportation. Currently one-fifth of the Europe’s total CO2 emissions come from our roads, and they are working to reduce this dramatically.
The legislation to reduce emissions hasn’t always been accepted by tyre manufacturers. In 2007, Continental Tyres took a stand against certain legislation to reduce emissions through ‘green tyres’. Less resistance means lower brake efficiency which meant Continental had concerns over safety. This disagreement didn’t mean that Continental were against eco-friendly tyres – they just wanted to do it better! They went on to produce one of the industry’s best environmentally friendly tyres, the Continental ProContact with Ecoplus Technology. These reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions while still providing good traction.
Other tyre companies followed suit – the Bridgestone Ecopia EP-02 tyre is another one, but was designed purely for electric-powered cars.