Technological breakthroughs

The tire manufacturing industry is undergoing a significant transformation driven by the simultaneous forces of vehicle electrification, environmental sustainability requirements, smart technology adoption, and manufacturing automation. This article synthesizes key insights from a scientific study presented at the International Conference on the Industry of the Future and Smart Manufacturing (2026), based on analysis by researchers from Goodyear Amiens (France) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology.

The tire market: Multiple pressures at once

The global tire market has experienced notable fluctuations in recent years. After declining in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the market rebounded in 2021 as mobility resumed and vehicle production recovered. However, this growth momentum was short-lived: by late 2022 and throughout 2023, rising inflation and escalating raw material costs reduced purchasing power, particularly in price-sensitive markets.

In Europe, replacement tire sales for consumers declined in the second half of 2022, falling by approximately 12% year-on-year as of the first quarter of 2023. Conversely, global demand has been supported by growth in emerging markets and a shift in consumer preferences toward larger vehicles such as SUVs and crossovers—vehicles that require larger and typically more expensive tires.

Within this context, electric vehicles (EVs) are emerging as a key force reshaping both demand structure and technical requirements in the tire industry. Due to their heavier weight and distinct operating characteristics compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, EV users tend to replace tires more frequently. This trend both generates additional demand and imposes new technical requirements that conventional tires are not fully equipped to meet.

What do electric vehicles require from tires?

Electric vehicles, with integrated battery systems, are typically 15–20% heavier than comparable gasoline-powered models. This additional weight increases the load on each tire, accelerating wear and affecting handling performance. In response, manufacturers have developed tires with higher load capacity, reinforced sidewalls, stronger internal structures, and in some cases larger air volume or higher inflation pressure. Companies such as Pirelli and Continental confirm that designing tires of the same size but with higher load indices represents a significant technical challenge.

The instant torque of electric motors, combined with regenerative braking, also places considerable stress on the tire tread. Estimates suggest that tire wear on EVs can be about 20% higher than on gasoline vehicles when using conventional tire designs. To address this, manufacturers are developing new rubber compounds—blending silica and other additives—to improve wear resistance without compromising grip.
Noise is another important factor. Without engine noise to mask it, tire noise becomes much more noticeable in EVs. Many manufacturers have incorporated polyurethane foam layers inside tires to absorb acoustic resonance within the tire cavity. Both Pirelli and Continental have commercialized products using this solution.

Additionally, EVs are highly sensitive to rolling resistance, which directly affects driving range per charge. Low rolling resistance (LRR) tires, once primarily used to improve fuel efficiency in gasoline vehicles, have now become almost a mandatory requirement for original equipment tires on EVs. The LRR tire market is projected to grow at an annual rate exceeding 11% in the coming years.

Sustainable materials: From experimentation to commercialization

Sustainability has become a core strategic direction for the tire industry in recent years. Major companies have set clear long-term targets: Michelin aims for 40% of tire materials to be sustainable or recycled by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Bridgestone has announced a similar roadmap.

To achieve these goals, multiple alternative material research pathways are being pursued simultaneously. Carbon black—a traditional reinforcing filler derived from fossil fuel combustion—is gradually being replaced by recovered carbon black from end-of-life tires. In a joint initiative in 2023, Michelin and Bridgestone highlighted the potential of this approach: using recovered carbon black not only reduces landfill waste but can also cut CO₂ emissions by up to 85% compared to producing virgin carbon black. However, the current share of recovered carbon black in new tires remains below 1% due to supply chain and quality control challenges.

Regarding natural rubber, Continental has produced prototype tires using latex extracted from dandelion plants—a feedstock that can be cultivated in temperate regions, reducing dependence on traditional rubber-growing areas in Southeast Asia. Bridgestone is cultivating guayule in Arizona (USA) with the goal of commercial production within this decade. In 2023, Goodyear unveiled a prototype tire containing up to 90% sustainable materials—including recycled polyester, soybean oil, silica from rice husk ash, and bio-based synthetic rubber—although it is not yet a commercial product.

On the regulatory side, the EU Tire Label Regulation 2020/740 (effective May 2021) requires manufacturers to disclose information on rolling resistance, wet grip, and noise levels, creating additional market incentives to improve these metrics. Europe is also discussing limits on microplastic emissions from tire wear—an environmental issue receiving increasing attention.

Smart and connected tires

Tires are gradually evolving from passive components into systems capable of collecting and transmitting real-time data. Tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS)—mandatory in the United States for over a decade and in the EU since 2014—represent the first step in this trend. Modern sensor generations go beyond pressure measurement to monitor temperature, acceleration, and deformation, enabling early detection of anomalies such as overheating or initial delamination.

Continental has developed sensors capable of detecting abnormal temperature increases or small punctures, issuing warnings before problems become critical. Accelerometers embedded in tires can also measure grip forces and detect loss of vehicle control, providing input data for stability systems. Pirelli has demonstrated its “Cyber Tire” system, which uses 5G connectivity to transmit road condition data to vehicles and nearby traffic via the cloud—although this technology remains in the testing phase.

RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags embedded in tires at the manufacturing stage are also becoming increasingly common, particularly in premium and commercial segments. These tags store identification data, maintenance history, and retreading status, supporting traceability and fleet management.

Automation and AI in tire manufacturing

Tire manufacturing is inherently a complex, multi-stage process that has traditionally required substantial manual labor. In recent years, waves of automation, digitalization, and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption have been reshaping tire factories toward Industry 4.0 models. The goal is to enhance production efficiency, ensure consistent quality, control costs, and increase flexibility to handle specialized tire lines—especially for EVs.

New factories in Asia and Eastern Europe are often built fully automated from the outset. For older plants, modernization is more complex due to layouts originally designed for manual labor, so companies typically upgrade in phases: first automating raw material mixing, followed by tire assembly processes.

One prominent application is quality inspection using computer vision and AI. In 2024, Nexen Tire introduced the industry’s first AI-based tire inspection system, using X-ray imaging and laser deformation measurements to detect defects that human inspectors might miss. The system achieves a defect detection reproducibility rate of up to 99.96%. Goodyear, Michelin, and Bridgestone are also investing heavily in similar initiatives.

AI is also used for predictive maintenance: by monitoring vibration, temperature, and electrical data from critical equipment such as mixers and curing presses, AI models can anticipate failures before they occur, minimizing unplanned downtime—especially important in processes where a single bottleneck can halt the entire production line.

Goodyear: A case study of comprehensive transformation

Among major tire manufacturers, Goodyear is analyzed in this study as a representative example of how a leading company adapts its strategy to industry shifts.

In terms of Industry 4.0, the Dudelange plant (Luxembourg), inaugurated in 2022 with an investment of USD 77 million, stands as a clear illustration. The facility employs Goodyear’s proprietary Mercury process—combining networked workstations with additive manufacturing principles—enabling the production of high-performance tires in small, on-demand batches at speeds four times faster than conventional production cycles.

For EVs, Goodyear launched the second generation of its ElectricDrive tire line in 2024, optimized for popular electric models such as Tesla and the Ford Mustang Mach-E. The tires incorporate SoundComfort foam for noise reduction, improved tread patterns for better wet grip, and compounds designed to reduce rolling resistance compared to previous generations. Notably, 50% of the materials used in ElectricDrive 2 are sustainable, including soybean oil, silica from rice husks, and bio-based rubber.

Regarding sustainability, Goodyear has committed to achieving net-zero emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) by 2050, with interim targets for 2030. By 2022, all Goodyear facilities in the EMEA region were operating on 100% renewable electricity, and the share of renewable energy across its global operations increased from 3% in 2019 to 34% in 2022. The company also aims to launch a tire made from 100% sustainable materials by 2030.

In response to geopolitical disruptions, following the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine conflict in 2022, Goodyear suspended shipments to Russia in the first quarter of 2022 and fully exited the market in January 2023. The company acknowledged that the conflict exacerbated already challenging macroeconomic trends and implemented measures to diversify supply sources and optimize energy costs.

Looking ahead

The tire manufacturing industry stands at the intersection of several major trends: vehicle electrification, sustainability requirements, smart technology adoption, and cost restructuring pressures. Future tire factories will need the capability to produce a wide range of advanced tire types—from EV tires to smart and sustainable tires—while maintaining high quality and rapidly adapting to external changes.

According to the research team, the ability to adapt quickly and effectively is becoming a decisive competitive factor. Companies that take the lead in investing in technology and restructuring production will set new standards, putting pressure on the entire industry to follow and thereby accelerating modernization across the sector.

Reference:

M. Ameer, L. Audibert, Y. Koutsawa, G. Giunta — “Emerging Trends in Tire Manufacturing and their Impact on Plant Reconfiguration”, Procedia Computer Science 277 (2026) 2033–2042. 7th International Conference on Industry of the Future and Smart Manufacturing.