OE INTERVIEW: CONTINENTAL thinking TTI speaks to Burkhard Wies, Continental Tire’s vice president of research and development innovation and applied research, about some of the tire maker’s key areas of investigation By MARK SMYTH Focused T 30 he continuing push toward cleaner and greener vehicles means more focus on tires and their overall contribution to the environment throughout their lifecycle. It’s a key topic for all tire manufacturers, including Continental. The obvious starting point is tires for electric vehicles. But, explains Burkhard Wies, Continental Tire’s vice president of research and development innovation and applied research, it’s not as big a deal as many may think. The increased torque and weight of EVs means more focus on lower rolling resistance and reduced wear, but these are things the tire industry is constantly looking to achieve across the board. “Wear, noise and rolling resistance are all criteria that we have for every tire,” he says. “It’s a bit more pronounced and you normally have new sizes, tall and narrow because bigger wheels are better in terms of rolling resistance and wear. All our tires are EV-compatible so, if you have an EcoContact or a PremiumContact, it’s prepared to run as a tire on an electric vehicle, but also on a combustion-engined vehicle.” Even so, research into new compounds better suited to EV tires has pushed for better wear without the corresponding compromises in wet grip and rolling resistance. However, there is also a need to reduce tire particulate emissions. Again, this is something that has come from low-emission vehicles such as EVs but applies across all tire use cases, and tallies with the drive for local and national legislation, which differs around the world. Wies and his team are not only conducting intensive research into ways of reducing particulate emissions, but are also investigating, for example, the formation of tire and road particles down to the molecular level in various internal and external projects in order to gain a holistic view. Continental is co-chair and founding member of the Tire Industry Project (TIP), an initiative that drives research on the potential impact of tires on the environment throughout their lifecycle. With regard to the new Euro 7 standard, which requires binding limits for tire wear, Wies says that, for Continental it is important that the assessment is performed on the basis of internationally recognized test methods. It is crucial that the wear behavior of tires and the formation of tire and road wear particles can be measured and compared without the influence of external variables. Design trends Wies believes tire design is also a key element in terms of tread patterns, tire geometry and the physical www.tiretechnologyinternational.com November 2023