The new Goodyear tyre is made of pine resin, rice husks, and soybean oil
The tyre has been approved for use on roads and contains 90% sustainably sourced materials.
The majority of experts concur that electric vehicles (EVs) are more environmentally friendly than internal combustion engines, but the hunt for greener transportation extends beyond the engine. It begins for Goodyear right where the road meets the rubber. Obviously, tyres are a crucial part of any vehicle, but let's face it, their production and the elements they contain are quite harmful to the environment. Making tyres more environmentally friendly could help clean up this blue marble we all live on, given that there are currently at least two tyres for every road-going car on the planet.
The contribution from Goodyear appears to be eminently realistic. At CES 2023, the manufacturer unveiled a tyre with 90% of its parts made of eco-friendly materials. According to Goodyear, there are 17 environmentally friendly elements in all. These include recycled polyester, plant-based materials including soybean oil, rice husk waste, and "bio-renewable" pine tree resin, as well as recycled polyester. Also included are "ISCC certified mass balance polymers from bio- and bio-circular feedstock" and "high recycled content" steel.
Even if everything sounds rather spectacular, you might be of the opinion that this is merely a far-fetched idea that won't amount to much. But Goodyear is treating this with some seriousness. The demonstration tyre that it brought to CES has undergone and passed both internal and regulatory testing at Goodyear.
Even yet, Goodyear acknowledges that it still needs to work with its suppliers to figure out how to scale up to mass production. As a result, it won't be ready for the road tomorrow. The business is now developing a new tyre that is comprised of 70 percent sustainable materials and has already developed a website for clients who are interested in buying it. By the end of the decade, Goodyear says it intends to create a tyre that is completely sustainable. Given that, it's possible that the 70 percent tyre (or this 90 percenter) will appear on the road sooner than we anticipate.
