For the 2023 season of Extreme E, Continental will supply a new version of the CrossContact Extreme E tire. During development, engineers focused on using a larger proportion of sustainable materials within the tire, with the latest CrossContact Extreme E tire consisting of approximately 43% recycled and renewable materials.
The recycled materials used in the tire include silica from rice husks, processed steel and carbon black, and polyester yarn from recycled PET plastic bottles. Continental has also been able to reduce the overall weight of the tire by 2kg for additional emissions savings.
The third-generation CrossContact Extreme E also benefits from ContiRe.Tex technology, which includes polyester yarn produced without any intermediate chemical steps from used PET bottles, which are not recycled anywhere else. The tire manufacturer sources the bottles from countries that do not have a closed recycling loop. Approximately 60 processed PET bottles are used to create the polyester required for each tire.
A total of 30 tires will be supplied to each of the 10 teams competing in the third season of the Extreme E race series.
“We have focused even more strongly on the use of sustainable and recyclable materials with this tire and are extremely well prepared for the challenges of the 2023 season,” said Nels von Schnakenburg, technical manager for Extreme E at Continental. “We’ve also made further gains with handling performance and have therefore improved drivability. The performance and robustness of the tire mean it will be able to withstand the full range of challenges Extreme E can throw at it.”
The tire’s size, diameter and width are the same as used previously, resulting in a size 37 x 12.50R17.
