On March 30, Tuhu held a spring tire new product launch conference in Shanghai. Seven major tire brands including Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone, Chaoyang, Dongfeng Victory, Thor and Feiyue released 12 new products, covering diverse scenarios such as home comfort, sports control, off-road conditions and new energy adaptation.
Many brands mentioned the same background at the press conference: the popularity of new energy vehicles is reshaping the technical standards of tires.
Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, electric vehicles have significant differences in body weight, power output, noise environment, etc., which causes the design logic of tires to be adjusted.
In fact, tire upgrades are an urgent need in the domestic new energy vehicle market.
Previous reports pointed out that the current quality problems of new energy vehicle tires have three typical characteristics: high incidence, early onset, and concentrated outbreak. The core reasons are the mismatch between vehicle weight and load, power and torque, and range and performance.
Because new energy vehicles are equipped with large-capacity batteries, their overall quality is significantly higher than that of fuel vehicles of the same level.
The Dongfeng Victory brand provided a set of data at the press conference: Taking a plug-in hybrid SUV as an example, the weight of its battery pack reaches an average of 0.3 to 0.5 tons. The weight of hybrid and electric vehicles is significantly increased compared to traditional fuel vehicles.
For every 10% increase in vehicle weight, the load-carrying requirements of tires need to increase by about 5% to meet performance requirements such as service life.
With limited wheel well space, traditional XL (Extra Load) tires can no longer meet demand.
To this end, Dongfeng Victory has upgraded all its tires to HL (High Load) tires.
This technology path is not an isolated example. Pirelli has also launched HL logo tires before, specifically to meet the load-bearing needs of electrification and SUV models.
According to Pirelli’s official data, the additional load-bearing capacity of HL tires can be increased by 6% to 9% compared to XL tires of the same specification.
The Jingyue series released by Raytheon has upgraded the load from SL (Standard Load) to XL, increasing the load capacity by 12%.
The power system changes of new energy vehicles also put forward new requirements for tires.
Since the motor can output maximum torque at the moment of starting, the vehicle requires higher grip during the initial acceleration phase. At the same time, the increased inertia caused by the weight of the battery also tests the wear resistance of the tires.
The A Avenger series released by Chaoyang Tire this time has high wear resistance, low noise and strong road grip as its main selling points.
The Thor Jingyue series has been structurally upgraded from welt rubber to edge rubber to improve the fatigue durability of the tire. Its rubber compound formula has also been adjusted to enhance wet and dry grip and wear performance.
Quiet performance has become another core technical indicator in the new energy era.
When traditional fuel vehicles are driving, engine noise will cover up part of the tire noise, but new energy vehicles have no engine noise, and the proportion of tire noise in the interior acoustic environment increases significantly.
The latest 7th generation tire family released by German Continental is equipped with self-repairing technology and silent cotton technology. Among them, TC7 focuses on quietness and comfort. According to the brand, its in-car noise can be reduced by 11% compared to the previous generation.
Dongfeng Shengli’s new product uses Sound Damper silent cotton noise reduction technology, which can reduce peak noise by up to 11.5 decibels.
Leishen Jingyue series tires are filled with special-shaped corrugated sponge, which improves the noise reduction effect by increasing the sound-absorbing area.
Hankook has recently also fully equipped its iON ST AS new energy tires with similar low-noise technology in large-size specifications.
The correlation between rolling resistance and cruising range is further amplified in the new energy era.
For fuel vehicles, tire rolling resistance mainly affects fuel consumption, while for electric vehicles, it is directly related to cruising range.
The Haoyue 5E released by Michelin this time is equipped with dual-tread technology, which upgrades energy-saving performance while maintaining quietness and comfort, and is clearly suitable for fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles.
According to industry research data, tire rolling resistance accounts for approximately 15% to 20% of the energy consumption of electric vehicles. Reducing rolling resistance has become one of the effective ways to improve battery life.
It can be seen from this press conference that tire companies are reshaping their technologies to meet the needs of new energy vehicles.
HL’s high load-bearing structure, silent cotton technology, low rolling resistance formula and enhanced wear-resistant rubber upgrades have become the common development direction of various brands of products.
In the context of the continuous increase in the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle market, the tire industry is experiencing a technology iteration cycle from “universal” to “scenario-specific”.
In this process, Chinese tire brands have the opportunity to “change lanes and overtake”.
