One of the leading tire manufacturers, Continental, has just introduced its newest product, Conti Urban, which is a sustainable commercial tire concept designed specifically for urban electric buses and made from 50% renewable and recycled raw materials.
Introduced at the IAA 2022 Hanover, Germany, Conti Urban tires use a tread that contains 68% renewable materials including rapeseed oil and silica which have been obtained from rice husk ash and natural rubber.
Like other Continental commercial tires, the new Conti Urban tires are said to be vulcanized which is a process that gives new life to worn out tire casings, by replacing the old tread with a new one.
“By 2050, we want to use 100 percent sustainably produced materials in all our tire products and achieve carbon neutrality across our value chain,” said Klaus Kreipe, Head of Equipment Division at Continental Tires in Europe.
This Conti Urban commercial tire is specially designed for electric buses and is also claimed to be very suitable for future delivery transportation. Nonetheless, Continental believes that greater sustainability is critical in the urban passenger and freight traffic sector.
According to the European Association of Automotive Manufacturers (ACEA), the number of new registrations for the use of electric buses in the European Union is recorded to have continued to increase significantly in 2021, with the market share continuing to increase that year to 10.6%.
When designing these tires, Continental has focused their efforts on achieving high energy efficiency and optimizing noise emissions as well as helping to reduce rolling resistance by up to 7% compared to the current generation Conti Urban.
The frequency of noise produced by Conti Urban tires when rotating on the road surface is claimed to have produced a very low frequency. With this, Continental will contribute to further reducing noise pollution from urban bus and shipping traffic in the future.
Continental introduces special tires for electric buses at IAA Transportation exhibition
