Feature: Tire industry squares up to cars of the future

 Based on article originally published in the January/February 2018 edition of European Rubber Journal magazine issue

Tire manufacturers and suppliers gauge the potential impact of the emergence of electric cars and driverless technologies. Patrick Raleigh reports

Tire industry leaders are currently trying to work out how electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies will impact their industry.

“If new car sales drop by 40%, what happens to the 925,000 (workers) involved in vehicle and parts manufacturing, 1.2 million involved in new car sales, 2 million in parts retail trade, 450,000 automotive repairers, 450,000 in auto body?” he asked at the 30 Oct meeting.

“What about the 4 million professional drivers? We’re starting to talk about very real numbers here who will be displaced with this change in technology.”

However, the tire industry likely will weather the storm, the Sumitomo Rubber executive went on to predict.

“The good news, honestly, is AVs will still need tires. But the current manufacturing/distribution model will change significantly,” said Smallwood.

Tire consumption will be about the same, while total miles travelled actually will climb due to increased use of the AV, the Sumitomo boss forecast.

Tire tread life and the interval between tire replacement, he added, will be extended due to the AV’s constant monitoring of its maintenance and repair needs.

“Tires will become more monetised because if you lose passion for the vehicle and you lose passion for driving it, then it’s nothing more than transportation. Then the tire becomes round and black and holds air,” said Smallwood.

Tire dealers will be dealing more with fleets than individual vehicle owners, if consumers adopt vehicle-sharing models or use fleet-owned taxis, he also suggested.

“There will be a shift from consumer purchasers to fleet purchasers, because if it goes to a shared model where people no longer own the car…those are fleet items, those aren’t consumers,” Smallwood said.

“So, the buy/sell process changes dramatically. That will force consolidation of distribution and manufacturing. It has the possibility of impacting the entire chain.”

Electric vehicles

Issues around the impact of EVs on tires are, of course, far more current – and, therefore, focused on the engineering requirements.

As a Pirelli online article explains, tire engineers are already working with vehicle manufacturers on the complicated task of developing products for electric cars.

Another challenge is to minimise tire-noise, due to the silent nature of electric engines.

“It is about achieving the right balance – reducing rolling resistance and noise while increasing handling and safety,” says Filippo Bettini, Pirelli’s chief officer of sustainability and risk governance.

EV’s also need to maximise the distance travelled between charges. This points to the use of very stiff tires with extremely low rolling resistance. But as such tires offer low ride comfort, the tire maker has again to find an optimum balance between conflicting performance requirements

That still leaves the tire-noise issue, which brings in tire design elements, such as tread-pattern, block-size, groove-width and depth into the equation.

Once again, car type affects the manufacturer’s mindset. If they are producing a tire for a small urban EV, which travels slowly and generates little noise, then acoustics are not an issue; if they are providing a premium product for a heavy and high-powered performance model, then noise reduction is high on the wish-list.

Then, last but by no means least, there is weight to consider.

EVs, notes Pirelli, have heavy batteries and an unusual vertical load distribution. This produces stress during acceleration and cornering, which means the tire structure needs to be extra resilient.

To survive and deliver adequate durability, the entire carcass has to be strengthened, which means rethinking the size, number and position of the inner steel belts.

“Producing the perfect tire for the new fleet of electric cars is a truly complex – and fascinating – challenge that will demand rigorous science, innovative thinking and many thousands of miles on the test track,” Pirelli concluded.

Don’t fear

Tire suppliers should not fear the future, believes Stephan Helm, chairman of German tire trade association the BRV.

“Alternative drive types for motorised vehicles have also not changed anything,” Helm told the 21 Nov meeting in Cologne. “There is a continuing need for products and services revolving around tires and chassis technology.”

The BRV chair went on to highlight the changing requirements for both tires and know-how in the workshops. These, for example, include issues around the latest technical guidelines for mounting truck tires.

Players in the tire replacement market are also being challenged by a high level of “competitive intensity coupled with increasing digitalisation in the economy and society,” commented Helm.

These trends, he said, will require companies to adapt to new information and communications needs of consumers, and develop data-management capabilities and other know-how to support networked vehicles.

With regard to automotive services, Helm noted growing demand for offerings that encompass the entire vehicle – a trend being driven by competition throughout the aftermarket.

“Companies are reacting to this with diversification into related business areas,” said Helm. “This is causing the boundaries between the previously relatively clearly separated distribution channels of the tire trade and the automotive work-shop to blur increasingly.”

In other words, concluded Helm, the market is increasingly demanding “everything from one source.”