Germany-based tire manufacturer Continental introduced the Conti Urban, a special tire for electric buses at the prestigious IAA Transportation 2022 commercial vehicle exhibition taking place in the German city of Hannover, September 20-25, 2022.
Conti Urban is a sustainable tire concept from Continental designed for urban electric buses. These tires are made from 50 percent renewable and recycled raw materials.
The Conti Urban tread, the part of the tire that is in direct contact with the road, contains 68 percent renewable materials, including rapeseed oil and silica obtained from rice husk ash.
Like most Continental commercial vehicle tires, the Conti Urban can also be vulcanized, a process that gives new life to worn tire casings, by replacing the old tread with a new one.
“Our Conti Urban further enhances its sustainability as its service life is extended,” said Klaus Kreipe, Head of Continental Tires’ Equipment Division in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
“By 2050, we want to use 100 percent sustainably produced materials in all of our tire products and achieve carbon neutrality across our value chain,” he added.
Another highlight that Continental will introduce at IAA Transportation 2022 is a prototype tire for a special trailer truck with an electric drive axle.
“Our tire prototype for electric trailers represents a whole new tire segment. It has the properties of a tire for the drive shaft and is designed for braking energy recovery.”
“This tire also has all the properties of a conventional trailer tire for the first and third axles. Truly versatile in the truest sense of the word, it is specifically designed for truck hybridization,” says Kreipe.
Conti Urban is specially designed for electric buses and future delivery transportation. 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 electric buses in the European Union will continue to increase significantly in 2021, with the market share continuing to increase that year to 10.6 percent.
The tire manufacturer also unveiled a new prototype tire designed specifically for the new trailer concept featuring a fully electric drive axle.
Continental is the exclusive development partner for the innovative trailer from Trailer Dynamics, which is designed to combine a truck tractor unit with a battery powered trailer, thereby reducing their CO2 emissions.
At IAA Transportation 2022, Continental also demonstrated the ContiConnect 2.0 digital tire management system, which allows fleet managers to monitor tire condition permanently, saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions.
This monitoring also helps prevent premature tire changes and unscheduled downtime.
“At IAA Transport 2022, we demonstrated how we can contribute to greater sustainability in short- and long-haul traffic thanks to our range of commercial vehicle tires. Continental is an integral part of the efficient and sustainable transportation of the future,” said Klaus Kreipe.
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