Pirelli doubles electric and hybrid OE tyre approvals in a year

Pirelli has doubled the total number of tyre approvals on electric and plug-in hybrid cars in 2021. According to the company, car manufacturers are increasingly choosing this technology and have allowed Pirelli to expand the homologation portfolio to more than 250 total homologations on ‘green’ cars since the launch of the ‘Elect’ EV-specific marking in 2019. For example, the Audi A6 Avant e-tron concept, exhibited in the Pirelli stand at the “Tire Cologne”.

Pirelli estimates it will reach its target market share in high end EVs of around 1.5 times that of premium/prestige internal combustion vehicles in 2022, three years ahead of schedule.

Pierangelo Misani, Pirelli’s Senior Vice President of research and development and cyber, said: “Technology and sustainability are the pillars on which Pirelli’s research and development work is based. Thanks to increasingly innovative technology, we support the transition of car manufacturers towards greener vehicles with tires suited to their performance. But sustainability is also found in our own products, which is why we are increasing the percentages of renewable and recyclable materials within the actual tires, in order to promote a circular economy over the product cycle, from raw materials to end of life.”

Other OE examples include tailor-made P Zero tyres that were developed for the Porsche Taycan. Pirelli’s engineers also created specific versions of the Cinturato and P Zero for the high-performance variants of Audi’s e-tron range and the Mercedes-Benz EQ family, as well as Scorpions for the latest SUV models. Then there’s BMW which chose Pirelli P Zero tyres for its new iX as well as the X5 xDrive45e Plug-In Hybrid.

Specific tyres from the Scorpion range have also been made for electric SUV firm Rivian, from the United States. Also from America, the Lucid Air is the first car to use new Pirelli P Zero Elect tyres with a high load index, marked with the wording “HL”. A selection of models from Chinese manufacturers Nio and Link & Co also uses P Zero and Scorpion Elect.