An investment of approximately US$85 million will increase production capacity for Bridgestone tyres in India and facilitate the development of products customised for the local market. Bridgestone Corporation’s Bridgestone India Private Ltd. (BSID) subsidiary will implement the investment at its Pune and Indore sites, with work commencing early next year.
Maserati has selected Bridgestone tyres for a further Grecale model. The tyre maker has developed a bespoke 20-inch fitment for the Italian marque’s first all-electric SUV, the Maserati Grecale Folgore.
With the recent launch of the Bridgestone Turanza 6, the manufacturer presented a touring summer tyre built on its Enliten technology platform that offered maximum applicability to the general motorist market. Succeeding the award winning Turanza T005 and the T001 Evo before it, the Turanza 6 incorporates electric vehicle-readiness and is presented in a wide range of sizes for both passenger cars and on-road SUVs, whether they are internal combustion engine, hybrids, or EVs. The tyre meets the demands of both general driving and the specific requirements of electric vehicles such as improving energy efficiency, maximising battery range, and accommodating the increased weight and torque of EVs.
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.
Firestone has launched the new Roadhawk 2 Enliten summer touring tyre. The Bridgestone brand says the new model offers “best-in-class wet grip” as well as longer mileage and a greater than 10 per cent reduction in rolling resistance, optimising fuel or energy consumption, based on internal testing on size 225/55 R17 101W. The integration of Bridgestone’s Enliten technology, which reduces material consumption and tyre weight, as well as using the new NanoPro-Tech high-silica compound for greater wear resistance, ensures the Roadhawk 2 Enliten is an “EV-ready tyre”: a tyre suitable for fitment on vehicles using and electric or conventional combustion engine powertrain. The new tyre will be available from January 2024 in 17-21” sizes to cover 90 per cent of the market. After the addition of 16” sizes in 2025, the range will comprise 112 size variations. The Firestone Roadhawk 2 Enliten is the successor to the Roadhawk summer touring tyre.
Enliten is now present in Firestone-branded products, with the Bridgestone technology featuring in the latest Firestone on-road regional truck tyre range. The line-up consists of the FS424 steer axle tyre, FD624 for the drive axle and FT524 trailer fitment, tyres that Firestone describes as “combining value for money with reliable performance.”
Bridgestone is supporting a team of Durham University students as they take on the World Solar Challenge in Australia. The students designed a three-wheeled asymmetrical catamaran-style car for the 3,000km journey on 22-29 October, which will run on specially designed Bridgestone Enliten tyres. The Challenger Class car has been two years in development, with months of remote study and digital development taking place to firstly overcome the challenges of the global pandemic and eventually a sustainable vehicle with a cruising consumption of 1kWh.
For the first time, Bridgestone is applying its Enliten technology to a winter light truck tyre. The Bridgestone Blizzak W989, which will go on sale in Japan in September, will thus offer a six per cent improvement in ice braking performance and 15 per cent better wear life than a comparable conventional tyre.
Bridgestone has partnered the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) as the title partner for its sustainability focused competition. The tyre manufacturer has signed a multi-year support agreement for the Bridgestone FIA ecoRally Cup, which aims to address major environmental concerns and foster positive behaviour amongst competitors. The competition was created in 2006. It sees production, road-legal electric vehicles running without modification in regularity events.
Vehicle manufacturers have built various models upon common platforms for years now, so why not do the same with tyres? Bridgestone sees the value in sharing modular components across tyre lines and is making something called BCMA a foundation of its New Premium strategy. It will market tyres resulting from this strategy under a global brand name and promote this brand via reactivated motorsport activities.
The expansion of Bridgestone Enliten into the replacement tyre market will commence in Europe this year with the launch of Bridgestone Turanza 6 and Duravis Van products featuring the technology. The tyre maker plans to debut a total of eight Enliten products for the European aftermarket in 2023, a figure representing around five per cent of all Bridgestone passenger car and light commercial vehicle tyres in the European replacement market.
Bridgestone Corporation has extended Enliten to the light truck segment, and next month will introduce the first Bridgestone truck tyres featuring the weight and rolling resistance technology.
Bridgestone has added further details to its new global corporate sustainability commitment, launched at the beginning of March 2022. The E8 Commitment represents a framework of eight key values to build on the company’s approach to sustainable business growth and transformation. The E8 Commitment also signals the development of “Bridgestone 3.0”, the company’s third era following its initial foundation in 1931 and its emergence as a global business in 1988 following its acquisition of Firestone. The latest evolution will be driven by the company’s new sustainable and advanced mobility solutions.
The past two years have given plenty of reason to be optimistic about the speed of the electrification of the car parc. In the UK plug-in electric vehicle sales have grown market share quickly, rising to 18.5 per cent of new car registrations in the UK in 2021, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Add in hybrids, and this figure was over a quarter (27.5 per cent) last year. The new car market has faced severe headwinds with component shortages and other effects of the pandemic, leading to only one percent growth compared to the year of the most severe pandemic restrictions in 2020. Meanwhile EVs have benefitted from favourable consumer perception and government-backed schemes, leading to growth where other segments have faltered. With schemes due to expire and bottlenecking in the rollout of chargepoints, there could be more turbulence for new EV sales coming, yet current projections show that confidence in the EV segment is relatively high.
Bridgestone Corporation is expanding production capacity at four of its passenger car tyre plants in Japan. With an investment of approximately 8.2 billion yen (£52.8 million), capacity at the Tochigi, Hikone, Hofu and Tosu facilities will increase by approximately 6,200 tyres per day by the end of 2025, an amount that equals more than ten per cent of current capacity.
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