At a time when the global tire industry is deeply transforming towards green, low-carbon and intelligent technologies, Chinese tire companies are gradually breaking the industrial structure dominated by international giants for a long time by relying on original innovations in underlying technologies.
As two landmark achievements in the independent breakthrough of national tire brands, General Motors’ (601500.SH) “Super Eucommia Tire” and Sailun Group’s (601058.SH) “Liquid Gold Tire” have opened up a path to advance tire technology with Chinese characteristics from the two core dimensions of “material science” and “process revolution” respectively.
One material and one art complement each other, and jointly outline a clear trajectory for China’s tire industry to transition from “scale-driven” to “innovation-driven”.
Breaking through from the bottom, breaking the situation for a hundred years
For a hundred years, the global tire industry has always been subject to the famous “Devil’s Triangle” law – that is, the rolling resistance, wet grip and wear resistance of tires are difficult to improve simultaneously.
This underlying logic has long been dominated by international giants with strict patent protection and formula barriers.
Facing a technological blockade, China’s leading tire companies decisively gave up the short-term and fast “imitate and follow” strategy and resolutely turned to long-term basic scientific research to break through.
GM and Sailun Group have each chosen two completely different independent innovation paths with the same goal, launching a head-on attack on this world-class industry problem.
Super Eucommia tires: rooted in the homeland, tempered with real gold
As a rare tree species unique to my country, the natural Eucommia gum extracted from it has excellent anti-fatigue, anti-aging, low heat generation and high wear resistance properties.
Synthetic Eucommia gum has the same ingredients as natural Eucommia gum, both are trans-polyisoprene. Their functional properties are basically the same, and the molecular weight and distribution can be precisely controlled.
It took GM more than ten years to take the lead in the industry in overcoming industrial application bottlenecks such as difficult processing of Eucommia rubber and poor formula compatibility, and achieved a leap from cutting-edge scientific research to commercial mass production. The “Super Eucommia Tire” developed with ingenuity represents a breakthrough for Chinese tires in the field of special bio-based materials.
Resource independence, go green: Eucommia ulmoides is known as “plant gold”. It naturally has excellent properties of anti-fatigue, anti-aging, low heat generation, and high wear resistance.
The large-scale application of this material has not only greatly alleviated the domestic tire industry’s over-reliance on imported natural rubber, but also embarked on a pure green bio-based route.
Performance jump, precise positioning: Thanks to molecular-level toughness, the wear resistance of Super Eucommia tires has increased by more than 30% compared with the conventional formula. The measured life of the front wheel can reach 80,000 kilometers; the wet braking performance reaches the highest (Class A) standard of the EU labeling law.
At the same time, it is equipped with CeliSeal self-healing and CeliMute silent cotton technologies to achieve instant self-healing of 5mm internal nails and cavity noise reduction of more than 9dB, which accurately meets the stringent demands of new energy vehicles for high load-bearing and extreme comfort.
Closed-loop ecology, independent and controllable: General Motors is the first in China to realize large-scale mass production of Eucommia rubber in passenger car tires and truck and bus tires, and has established a full-chain independent patent system of “materials-formula-process-products”, opening up an innovation track based on unique resources for domestic tires.
Liquid Gold Tires: Unique Path, Advancing to the High-end
The “liquid gold” (liquid phase mixing) technology launched by Sailun Group after more than ten years of joint research represents a subversion of the basic manufacturing process of Chinese tires.
This technology is hailed by the industry as the fourth milestone innovation in the world’s rubber tire industry.
Original process, cracking the root cause: This technology abandons the physical dry mixing that has been used in the traditional rubber industry for hundreds of years, and adopts a continuous liquid phase mixing process to achieve uniform dispersion of silica at the molecular level in the rubber matrix, solving the “Devil’s Triangle” problem from the root.
Performance benchmark, first-line benchmark: Liquid gold tires reduce rolling resistance by 38.4%, improve wear resistance by 20%, and significantly shorten wet braking distances. They successfully obtained EU Double A certification, and their comprehensive performance is fully benchmarked against international first-tier flagship products.
Patent barriers, technology output: The global patent moat established through original process innovation marks that Chinese tires have truly realized the transformation from “running parallel” to “leading” in basic material processing and manufacturing technology.
Twin engines go hand in hand and build a matrix together
From a macro industry perspective, the value of these two technical paths far exceeds the product itself.
The industrialization of Eucommia gum has allowed the independent control of key polymer materials to move from vision to reality; the breakthrough in liquid phase mixing means that Chinese companies have a say in the underlying technology.
What the two together constitute is a R&D paradigm transition from “recipe following” to “underlying definition”.
The more far-reaching impact is that this change is reshaping the innovation ecology of China’s tire industry.
General Shares’ more than ten years of deep scientific research on Eucommia gum and Sailun Group’s long-term persistence in liquid phase mixing technology are forcing the entire industry to abandon short-term, fast and low-end involution and turn to long-term underlying technology development.
One south and one north, one material and one art, the two paths form a synergy with differentiated positioning, and jointly build a solid matrix to resist the high-end monopoly of international giants.
[Conclusion]
The rise of Super Eucommia Tires and Liquid Gold Tires is a footnote to the era of China’s tire industry moving from a manufacturing power to an intelligent manufacturing power.
With different technical logics, they interpret the same proposition to the world: true independent innovation does not lie in benchmarking and imitation, but in opening up its own track.
With the continuous optimization of the extraction cost of Eucommia gum and the large-scale promotion of the liquid phase mixing process, the voice of domestic tires in the global high-end supporting market will become increasingly stable.
From “plant gold” to “liquid gold”, from “material breakthrough” to “process reconstruction”, the advancement of national tire brands is writing another possibility for the rise of China’s industry.
