A tire line aimed at commercial truck applications has been announced by Goodyear. Fuelmax Endurance, the tire maker claims, is a fuel-efficient and versatile tire option for steer and drive axles in operation on highways and inter-regional roads.
The new range has been designed to help European fleets and truck manufacturers reduce carbon emissions. Goodyear hopes to achieve this by combining fuel efficiency levels learned from long-haul journeys with the durability, traction and mileage characteristics required to drive on off-highway routes.
The Fuelmax S Endurance steer tire features Goodyear’s IntelliMax Rib Technology in a five- or six-rib design with specific rib distribution and groove geometry. The stiffeners situated in the tire’s shoulder grooves connect when the tire rolls. This increases the robustness of the tire and limits wear in off-highway journeys.
A directional tread design features several deep sipes, deep center grooves and biting edges to improve traction and water evacuation. On selected steer sizes an increased tread depth means more wearable rubber and extends grip later into the tire’s service life. A dedicated curing process is also utilized for the drive tire to optimize rolling resistance.
A low energy-loss tread compound offsets heat generation caused by load forces on the steer position tire. Selected steer tires also feature an optimized sidewall compound to contribute to lower emissions and fuel efficiency by decreasing flexion and deformation of the sidewall in off-highway scenarios. All sizes of the Fuelmax Endurance benefit from a B-label in fuel efficiency.
The latest tire is fully compatible with Goodyear’s retreading program, and the drive tire will be available as a retread. This adds extra mileage while providing the same features and benefits while reducing the tire cost by up to 30%.
“Vehicle manufacturers, fleet managers and operators are under increasing pressure to meet sustainability targets while operating on low margins. Regulators, investors and end-customers are demanding ‘clean’ products being transported in the most sustainable way,” commented Grégory Boucharlat, vice president, commercial Europe, Goodyear.
“It’s efficient and hard-wearing, offering low emissions and excellent grip as well as long-lasting performance and mileage,” continued Boucharlat. “With this new product line, we wanted to bridge the gap between sustainability and reality in the daily operations.”
Designed to cover a wide variety of haulage applications, the standard-size tires are claimed to lower emissions levels of new heavy-duty-vehicles by approximately 2% when compared with a C-label tire for fuel efficiency.
“A reduction of 2% in CO2 reduction translates into a saving of about 1 metric ton of CO2 emissions and 400 liters of fuel per truck, per year,” explained Maciej Szymanski, marketing director, commercial, Europe, Goodyear. “If a 100-vehicle fleet switches from a C-label to a fuel-efficient B-label tire like Fuelmax Endurance this would represent a potential saving of 100 metric tons of CO2 emissions and 40,000 liters of fuel, per year. You can imagine the potential when we start multiplying the numbers of vehicles and fleets.”
