Bridgestone Plans to Introduce New Fuel-Efficient Tyres Abroad
(Bloomberg) Bridgestone Corp. plans to sell a new fuel-efficient tyre outside Japan to lure drivers trying to cut gasoline costs. Bridgestone will sell its Ecopia line of tyres, which improve a car’s fuel economy by as much as 5%, in markets including North America and Europe following a domestic launch in April this year, Takashi Tomioka, director of Bridgestone’s tyre products strategy division, said in an interview.
Gasoline prices have jumped 27 per cent in the U.S. this year, cutting demand for new cars. Tokyo-based Bridgestone forecasts demand for replacement tyres will be unchanged and consumers will be willing to pay higher prices for fuel-efficiency. “The sales volume on these tyres is very small,” said Kunihiro Matsumoto, senior analyst at UBS AG in Tokyo. “But it’s positioned as a high-performance tyre and priced to contribute to earnings.” (Tire Review/Akron)