The 2025 Tire Technology Awards have been presented
The ceremony of the international award Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence was held in Hannover, which is awarded annually to participants in the tire industry in several categories, such as "Tire Manufacturer of the Year", "Tire of the Year", etc. The coordinator is the magazine Tire Technology International, and the winners are chosen by a jury consisting of international journalists and industry experts.
Since the ecology factor plays an increasingly significant role in the tire industry, three awards were related to environmental protection, and the first one - "Environmental Achievement in Tire Development" - was received by Goodyear for its Goodyear ElectricDrive Sustainable-Material (EDS) tire, which contains a high proportion of "green" materials.
As Nathaniel Madarang, President of Goodyear in the Asia-Pacific region, told, the tire presented at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) will be an excellent choice for electric car owners, and the share of environmentally friendly materials exceeds 70%. By 2030, Goodyear intends to be the first in the industry to release a tire made 100% from "green" raw materials.
The "Environmental Achievement in Manufacturing" award was received by Continental, which last year announced that it can now produce tires at its plant in Lousado (Portugal) with zero carbon dioxide emissions. If earlier the plant used natural gas to generate steam necessary for vulcanization, then last year an electric boiler was installed, and energy is obtained using solar panels and other renewable sources. Continental intends to transfer all its tire plants to carbon-neutral processes no later than 2040.
In the "Environmental Achievement - Contribution to Industry Development" category, the award was given to Nokian Tyres, which opened a plant in Oradea (Romania), which is considered the world's first full-scale tire production with zero CO2 emissions. As Adrian Kaczmarczyk, Senior Vice President for Operations at Nokian, noted, "the new plant is a benchmark for the industry, and it is a great honor for us to receive the award, especially since the enterprise is preparing to start supplying products".
The "Innovation of the Year in New Materials" award was received by Bekaert for its high-strength reinforcing materials Mega Tensile, which have a number of advantages, including in terms of sustainability. "This is not only a breakthrough in terms of increasing strength, but also a solution that allows setting a new standard for efficiency and environmental friendliness," said Jim Dobson, Senior Vice President for Technology and Quality of the Reinforcing Materials Department at Bekaert.
The "Breakthrough of the Year in R&D" award was given to the Japanese Sumitomo Rubber Industries for its Active Tread technology, which changes the mechanical properties of the rubber mixture depending on environmental conditions. The technology was used in the production of all-season tires Dunlop Synchro Weather, which, unlike standard "all-season" tires, are designed to provide high safety not only on snow, dry and wet asphalt, but also on ice. The tire has already entered the Japanese market.
Company VMI, a major supplier of equipment for the tire industry, received the "Innovation of the Year in Tire Manufacturing" award for its quality control system for Maxx and Milexx assembly machines. "I chose VMI as the winner in this category because their technology allows taking another step towards creating fully flexible production modules," noted David Shaw, a well-known industry expert and CEO of Tire Industry Research.
In the "Best Industry Supplier" category, the struggle is traditionally very intense every year, and, as in previous years, the contenders were separated by only a few points, and the winner was the Chinese ARP Technologies. The jury noted that the company has implemented numerous innovations in the tire vulcanization sector, such as servo-driven manipulators, new insulation technologies, and automated mold replacement using AGV.
The best conceptual tire was recognized as the airless Bridgestone tire designed for lunar rovers. The second-generation "lunar" tire has a skeletal structure with thin metal spokes and a segmented tread, and is designed for use in extreme conditions on the Earth's satellite with intense temperature fluctuations, radiation exposure, etc.
One of the key categories, naturally, was "Tire of the Year", and in 2025, the nominees were Continental Conti Eco Gen 5, Hankook Ventus evo, Michelin Primacy 5, Toyo Proxes Sport 2 and Vredestein Ultrac+, and the winner was the French Michelin. As Cyril Roger, Michelin's Director of Scientific Research and Innovation Communications, told, the novelty is sold all over the world, and compared to the previous generation tires, the resource has increased by 18% with a 5% improvement in energy efficiency. At the same time, Primacy 5, as Roger emphasizes, provide a high level of safety both in new and worn conditions, and the carbon footprint during the life cycle of the tires was reduced by 6%.
Finally, "Tire Manufacturer of the Year" was recognized as Continental, which became the only company to receive two awards. The shortlist also included Bridgestone, Michelin, Nokian, Pirelli, Sumitomo and Yokohama, and Continental wins in this category for the fourth time.
According to Matt Ross, Chairman of the Award and Editor-in-Chief of Tire Technology International, the contenders for victory were very close to each other, and Continental was chosen for the "breadth of achievements", as last year it installed new equipment in Lousado and continued to increase the use of recycled PET in tires. In addition, together with Kordsa, the development of the Cokoon technology created to refuse resorcinol and formaldehyde during the impregnation of textile cord continues.
The "Young Scientist Award" was also awarded, which was received by Katerina Filzer, a PhD student at the University of Twente (Netherlands), for her presentation on an innovative method for adding a devulcanizing agent to rubber, and the honorary award for achievements was awarded to Professor Anke Blume, Head of the Department of Elastomer Technology and Engineering at the University of Twente.
Photos: TTI, Goodyear, Continental, Nokian, Sumitomo, Bridgestone, Michelin