Goodyear recently honoured 140 Goodyear engineers and associates at a ceremony in Luxembourg. The 39th patent award celebration in Mondorf-les-Bains was attended by numerous regional Goodyear leaders and opened by Bernd Kutsch, who is in charge of the Goodyear Innovation Centre Luxembourg patent department. Marc Hansen, Luxembourg’s Minister Delegate for Higher Education and Research, was guest of honour at the event.
Goodyear has opened its new Tire Test Laboratory at its Innovation Center in Luxembourg. The manufacturer said it will measure tyre development performance, conduct regulatory and homologation tests, and perform quality control at the state-of-the art facility. The lab includes the latest technology for testing car, light truck and commercial truck tyres.
Goodyear is confident that on-demand transportation has a bright future, and at this year’s Geneva Motor Show it has presented its concept of what tyres for autonomous electric urban ride-sharing vehicles may look like.
Commercial fleets face a future that presents them with both opportunities and challenges. The growth of online shopping is bringing down the number of bulk deliveries made and requires more refined logistics solutions, autonomous vehicles will soon be an inescapable reality, while the approach of 5G connectivity is opening up new horizons for connectivity and experiential learning. The future also offers opportunities and revenue growth potential within the fleet management market, an industry said to be currently worth US$10.5 billion a year. At the launch of a new pan-European fleet business in November, Jean-Claude Kihn, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region president at Goodyear Tire & Rubber, stated that the company was prepared for this future and looking forward to it.
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Germany has released a statement regarding the planned closure of its tyre factory in Philippsburg, northwest of Stuttgart. The closure will occur as part of the tyre maker’s efforts to reduce overcapacity for low-margin products. A timetable for winding-down production in Philippsburg has not yet been made public, and the plant’s closure will follow negotiations with employee unions. Some 890 jobs are expected to be lost.
Goodyear has done it again. For the last few years of exhibiting at the Geneva Motor Show, the company has been taking the idea of concept tyres more seriously than most (think of “battery charging, shape shifting tyres” last year and an SUV concept plus “chip in tyre” technology the year before. The goal is clearly to challenge received wisdom and raise questions about the future of tyres – taking a thought leadership role in the markets, but especially with OEMs. This year Goodyear put its Eagle 360 centre-stage in Geneva. Of course the spherical tyre is striking for its shape and the suggestion that it will move the vehicle of the future with a built maglev propulsion system, but what is perhaps even more interesting for the tyre industry is the questions this product raises about future tyre manufacturing, distribution and retail business models. Tyres & Accessories spoke with Goodyear EMEA president Jean-Claude Kihn in order to find out more.
Goodyear has unveiled its latest concept tyre, the Eagle-360, and it’s one of the more radical departures from traditional tyre design; it is a sphere. The 3-D printed model presents a long-term vision of future mobility, in which autonomous driving is expected to be more mainstream. Goodyear’s video demonstrating its vision of the Eagle-360’s place in the future of autonomous mobility is embedded in the full article.
The announcement that the current president of Goodyear’s Latin America business, Jean-Claude Kihn, will soon become president of its EMEA region coincides with the news that Goodyear Tire & Rubber will merge its North America and Latin America businesses into one Americas business unit, effective 1 January 2016. The combined business will be known as the Americas business unit and be led by Stephen R. McClellan, currently president of Goodyear’s North America business. Marcelo Toscani, now vice-president of global manufacturing, will serve as president of the company’s Latin America operations and report to McClellan.
Jean-Claude Kihn has been named president of Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business. The president of the Latin America business will fully assume his new role on 1 January 2016, succeeding Darren R. Wells, who will leave Goodyear in early 2016.
Truck fleets in the US are currently testing tyres containing Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Air Maintenance Technology (AMT) as part of a research project supported by United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Vehicle Technology.
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