With commercial fleet customers facing unenviable cost pressures, Bridgestone has sought to demonstrate why its lowest total cost of ownership philosophy makes financial sense for fleets. The tyre supplier offers a complete package of fleet commercial support to promote maximum efficiency, convenience and sustainability, beginning with its premium truck tyres.
The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China has ruled in favour of Bridgestone Corporation in a lawsuit against Shandong Hawk International Rubber Industry Co., Ltd. (Hawk Tyre). Bridgestone had alleged that the Chinese manufacturer infringed its tyre tread design rights.
Bridgestone is bringing its sustainability and efficiency focused tyre technology to its range of commercial tyres for long-haul transportation with the new Bridgestone Ecopia Enliten. The latest generation Ecopia has been created for fleets seeking to maximise fuel efficiency and boost total value of ownership, Bridgestone states, saying the new tyres boast enhanced wear and reduced rolling resistance in year-round long-haul commercial fleet applications. The new Bridgestone Ecopia Steer Enliten and Ecopia Drive Enliten tyres are available from January 2024 in size 315/70 R22.5, with four additional sizes added throughout 2024 and one further size in 2025. Bridgestone will add the Ecopia Trailer Enliten from late 2024 to complete the range.
A four-month academic study at Coventry University, supported by Bridgestone, has demonstrated the scale of the business case for fitting tyres that assist a commercial vehicle’s efficiency. With increasing economic demands being placed on its commercial fleet partners, Bridgestone contacted the Warwickshire university with an invitation to investigate the benefits associated with its premium Duravis and Ecopia tyre ranges. Business Analytics masters graduate Sreyas Sunil Kunnappally embarked on a painstaking project, arriving at this conclusion. His final report is now being revealed for the first time.
When it goes on sale in Europe in spring, the plug-in hybrid version of the latest generation Toyota Prius will be available with Bridgestone Ecopia EP510 and Ecopia EP150 tyres as original equipment. These tyres will also be a factory fitment on the new Prius in Japan and Asia, while cars destined for North America may be fitted with the Ecopia EP422 Plus.
Commercial vehicle tyre suppliers are increasingly required to be multifaceted in their approach. Following its acquisition of TomTom Telematics in 2019 (now known as Webfleet Solutions), Bridgestone’s transition from tyre producer to mobility solutions provider with increasingly integrated approaches to fleet services moved up several gears. Demand for fleet-based mobility grows year-on-year, the tyre manufacturer says, with fleet managers demanding reliable and innovative services to maximise their effectiveness and efficiency. Webfleet Solutions has allowed Bridgestone to support business process streamlining with seamless end-to-end systems. These include transport management systems, on-board cameras, and route optimisation.
One of the UK’s biggest freight haulage companies has given its endorsement to Bridgestone’s suite of commercial tyre services. Pentalver, a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W), which offers a range of container services including road haulage and container conversions, operates a fleet of over 350 tractor units and 900 trailers in the UK – all fitted on a combination of Bridgestone’s latest generation Ecopia H002 tyres and Bandag retread products.
Bridgestone Corporation will supply solar car tyres to 32 teams participating in the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC), for which Bridgestone is the naming rights sponsor. The narrow, wide diameter tyres utilise Bridgestone’s ‘Ecopia with ologic’ fuel-efficient tyre technology.
More than 10 million original equipment and replacement market Ecopia tyres have been sold in the Asia Pacific region since the brand was first launched there in 2009, reports Bridgestone Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. As of 2014, Ecopia tyres accounted for more than 20 per cent of Bridgestone’s replacement market sales in Asia Pacific.
The latest AA passenger car tyre has arrived, with eight sizes of Goodyear’s EfficientGrip Performance meeting the wet grip and rolling resistance criteria. The brand is now providing one of the largest number of tyre sizes sporting AA EU tyre label grades on the market. The new sizes complement an already extensive BA rated offering from Goodyear on the market today, with 53 EfficientGrip Performance sizes rated BA.
As the first brand to achieve passenger car tyre double-A grading on both the European and the Japanese tyre labels with the EP001S, Bridgestone’s Ecopia product range must be considered one of the leading eco tyre ranges in the current, post-labelling era. More noticeably, in terms of the shape of the product at least, Bridgestone’s EP500 “ologic” large and narrow tyre is a signifier that more radical product design decisions are making it to production. While the terminology for tyres designed to be eco-friendly is not exactly fixed, with definitions subject to subtle variations depending on the manufacturer, the presence of a rolling resistance A or B-grade on both major tyre labels to use this measurement seems a fair way to define an eco tyre. Yet for premium brands, the label grades can only be one part of the picture, as the end user is likely to be more discerning about their product choice, having paid generally a higher price for the product.
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