Electric vehicle market a ‘slow burner’ for tire makers

London – While there is a lot of new technology and development work around electric vehicles, internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are going to continue dominating the tire market well into the next decade.

That’s according to Robert Simmons, managing director of UK-based GlobalData, who sees ICE vehicles taking the lion’s share of the market in terms of number of tires sold for a long period of time – particularly replacement sales.

In an analysis presented at the recent Tire Tech Expo, Simmons showed forecasts putting battery electric models on track to reach roughly 30% of new-vehicle sales, the figure rising to 50% if hybrids are included.

“But, when you look at the total tire market, the important segment being replacement, by 2030, only around 15% of the parc is electric,” the GlobalData MD noted at the event in in Hanover.

Even in China, where electrification is happening faster than anywhere else and the fleet is still growing, EVs could maybe represent just 20-25% of the vehicles on the road by 2030.

“So actually, the transformation of the industry to electric is relatively slow,” he explained. “Because we've got 1.4 billion vehicles on the road, it will take a long time to replace those vehicles.”