Green Rolling

An overview on latest in green tyres, market scenario and adoption in India

V K Misra,
Director Technical,
JK Tyre

Daniele Lorenzetti,
Chief Technology Officer,
Apollo Tyres Ltd

Parag Parshuram Satpute,
Managing Director,
Bridgestone India Pvt Ltd

As per the global industry analysis and forecast by FMI the global green tires market is expected to register a double-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, global green tires market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East and Africa. As of 2015, Europe dominated the global green tires market in terms of market revenue followed by North America. Asia Pacific and Japan are projected to expand at a substantial growth and will contribute to the global green tires market value exhibiting a robust CAGR during the forecast period, 2015, informs V K Misra, Director Technical, JK Tyre
Briefing on the green tyre scenario he says, “Currently green tyre, primarily a fuel efficient product has approximately 28 per cent share of the products globally. This figure could go up to 35 per cent by 2020.”

He adds, “In India green tyre population is low and is gradually increasing through replacement market root as well as through OEM root. However, in view of AMP 2026 and EV Policy of Indian government to have substantial per cent of vehicle as EV's by 2030 this market for green tyre will grow significantly.”

Green tyre is a general term used to describe tyres which consume less energy in rolling, and thus resulting in reduced CO2 emissions from vehicles.

Looking into the composition of tyres in Indian market, the passenger car tyres are almost completely radialised and the commercial vehicle tyres are experiencing a rapid radialisation which currently stands around 40 per cent. As radial tyres are much more fuel efficient than traditional cross ply (bias) tyres, this transition will bring great benefits for fuel consumption and environment. Having said that, this is not enough. The tyres need to be a lot more efficient in rolling, without compromising on the wet grip and wear life. This will need technology enhancement in tyres, in terms of design, material usage, manufacturing process and ensuring right application (inflation and loading) along with supporting road/vehicle infrastructure to realise benefits that are expected.

Informing about scenario of green tyres in India Daniele Lorenzetti, Chief Technology Officer, Apollo Tyres Ltd says, “Indian government is considering imposition of Regulations (proposed implementation for stage I by April 2019) for rolling resistance and wet grip in line with European regulations. This, along with upcoming fuel efficiency norms for automobiles (proposed implementation by April 2020) is expected to popularise the usage of green tyre technology in the country.”

Parag Parshuram Satpute, Managing Director, Bridgestone India Pvt Ltd says, “At this moment, there is not consumer awareness about Green Tyres in India. Consumers generally know that switching to green tyres can result in lesser emission and lesser fuel consumption. Bridgestone India as our long term global strategy and commitment on environment, have introduced “ECOPIA” brand of tyres in India in Aug 2015. However the response is lukewarm as it is not easy to sell environment friendliness in India. In OE front, OEMS are very well aware about Green Tyre performance and are also concerned about export market so ECOPIA is 100 per cent OE Fitment in newly launched vehicles like MSIL Ignis, Honda City and MSIL Dzire and Swift. Many more car models are under testing and soon to be launched with ECOPIA.”

How green tyres works
In a vehicle powered by Internal Combustion engine, the power to move the vehicle comes from burning the fuel in the engine and byproducts of this combustion process are generally called as pollutants. “Tyres consume almost 5 per cent to 12 per cent (major consumers are engine and transmissions) of total energy available from fuel. Vehicle fuel consumption has an immediate effect on CO2 emissions,” informs Lorenzetti.

Major contribution towards tyre rolling resistance is from energy losses from cyclical deformations of tyres, called as hysteresis losses depending on the visco-elastic nature of materials used to making tyres. Also, tyres constitute the major part of the un-sprung mass in a vehicle and reduction in their weight can potentially reduce the amount of fuel consumed in rolling. Hence, along with reducing hysteresis losses in tyre compounds, another way of making tyres green is by making them lighter as well, and this will reduce the environmental impact in terms of materials usage. Light-weighting of tyres are achieved through a more sophisticated development approach involving more performing materials and compounds, and through a more advanced production process. Apollo is continuously acting in both directions.

Hence Lorenzetti says, “To minimise the negative impact on the environment, tyres need to be fuel efficient and at the same time, have less tread wear. But this combination can potentially affect wet grip, raising certain safety concerns. Positive part is that the tyre industry has developed technology to circumvent this trade off, and thus support environment protection.”

Green tyres have low rolling resistance which result in burning lesser fuel. This results in lower emission of CO2 in the environment, believes Satpute. He adds, “For our ECOPIA brand of tyres, we got them tested for fuel saving by ARAI (The Automotive Research Association of India, Pune) and results were overwhelming. Compared to a standard tyre, EP150 (ECOPIA pattern for passenger cars) showed 7 per cent fuel savings. Compared to a standard tyre, EP850 (ECOPIA pattern for SUV and CUV) showed 10 per cent fuel savings. If we take an example of a Typical SUV giving fuel efficiency of 10kmpl and running 50,000 kms for the lifetime of tyre it uses 5,000 litres of fuel. Saving of 10 per cent means, saving of 500 litres of fuel which would have burnt and gone into environment. Now multiply this with the cars running on Indian roads and we are talking into millions of litres of fuel being burnt! That's not all, Bridgestone Corporation has been globally working on improving efficiency from designing stage to raw material sourcing, production, logistics, usage and scrappage stage, that is cradle to grave concept. We have mid-term and long term sustainability program through three objectives: In harmony with nature, Value natural resources and Reduce CO2 emissions.”

Green tyres, are primarily fuel efficient tyres. Moreover green tyre term is used when material based on fossil fuel is replaced by ecofriendly materials thereby reducing the impact on environment. “In addition, lower rolling resistance further improves fuel efficiency of the vehicle thereby further reducing the greenhouse gas emission or carbon footprint,” shares Misra.

Designing green tyres for having a strong grip on the road
A performance compromise existed in the past in reducing the rolling resistance with road grip and tread mileage. But tyre industry could overcome this by advancement efforts through own and collaborative research with suppliers in developing tyre technology, and in developing advanced materials and processes respectively. Silica technology was the first breakthrough in removing the performance trade off reflected in your question. Development and incorporation of several nano-materials and polymer composites and their industrialisation through advanced processing technologies in tyres, will further improve this situation,” believes Lorenzetti.

Apollo is currently engaged in numerous research projects in-house, as well as in collaboration with external partners like National Research Institutes, Universities and RM suppliers to create the much needed technological edge to the company in areas of environmental sustainability. Some of the key projects are aimed at the development of Epoxide Natural Rubber, Nano-delaminated clays, De-proteinized Natural Rubber, Silane Modified Clays, New Generation Silanised Silicas, Self Healing tyre etc, all focusing majorly on the three fundamental areas of tyre performance such as lowering rolling resistance, reducing rate of tyre wear and improving wet grip, and replacement of synthetic materials with naturally occurring ones. “Many of these projects are in industrialisation phases.

Also, reducing wear rate helps to reduce release of tyre tread particle into air to reduce air pollution and thus enhancing health and safety,” informs Lorenzetti. While designing green tyres Misra says, “There are various attributes which have to be primarily considered in the tyre design as well as compound design. Grip is an essential attribute to any tyre design whether green or otherwise. In case of green tyre focus is on wet grip as well as on dry grip which is achieved by optimum tyre tread design, suitable material selection namely functionalised polymers, HD silica, coupling agents, etc.”

Traditionally, the Rolling resistance of a tyre had an inverse relation with wet grip or durability in so called magic triangle. If tyre designer designed tyre with better Rolling Resistance, either wet grip or durability was affected inversely. Since wet grip is a safety feature, it can't be compromised. Durability is a customer value as well. With deployment of latest compounding, designing and production technologies, “We at Bridgestone were able to design ECOPIA range of tyre which could provide superior rolling resistance without compromising on wet grip and durability of tyres,”says Satpute.

Green tyres portfolio
Apollo is one of the largest OEM supplier in India. Its passenger car tyres enjoy a sizeable market in Europe, which has stringent regulation norms and this itself is a proof of technology. Its R&D has developed both passenger car tyres and commercial vehicle tyres with rolling resistance and wet grip values which are easily comparable with those of tyres which are addressed as Green Tyres. “We are confident to meet any upcoming regulations in this regard in India. Some of the specially made tyres are in advanced level of testing that may soon be introduced into market with descriptions denoting their environment friendly performance features,” states Lorenzetti.

Informing about the green tyres portfolio Satpute shares, “The word ECOPIA is derived from Ecology and Utopia, roughly translating to Ecological Utopia. ECOPIA range of tyres is available in 19 sizes in Passenger car segment and 9 sizes in SUV/ CUV segment R156 and R159 range of product is available in Truck and bus segment.”

He adds, “These products offer superior Rolling resistance developed for Indian driving conditions. Rolling resistance of ECOPIA range of products is superior to stage 2 limits of Europe. It is worth mentioning here that in India currently there are no environment regulations and there may be stage 1 limits implemented in coming years. Bridgestone, with our superior worldwide technical superiority combined with 20 years of experience in India have offered world class Rolling Resistance suitable for Indian driving conditions.”

JK Tyre launched first set of green tyre in 2005 including coloured tyres. These were highly fuel efficient and green. Subsequently, we have during last 4-5 year, launched many products which are highly fuel efficient and can be termed green. Some of our tyres are used in various OEM fitments. “As one of the mission of JK Tyre is “To be a Green Company”, we are continuously upgrading our product portfolio offering more and more green tyres,” states Misra.

Adopting and investing in green
India government has announced compliance to BS VI by 2020 which requires highly fuel efficient vehicle and therefore, fuel efficient components including tyres.

JK being pioneer in radial technology and with the background of low rolling resistance tyre portfolio has planned to take the following steps:
• Further enhancing PCR and LTR portfolio and launch specific fuel efficient products under specifically identifiable product code.
• JK Tyre has developed low rolling resistance Truck Radial Tyres and which are in the process of evaluation.
• JK has set up, R&D, technology and Manufacturing road map to continue to strengthen their presence in this segment.

Explaining on the adopting and investing in green tyres as a long term strategy Lorenzetti says, “This is one of the top priorities for our R&D. We believe Tyre Industry has to support Automobile Industry in meeting stringent fuel efficiency norms and most importantly, work together to support the larger purpose of protecting the environment. Apollo is making substantial investments in developing technology by its own research, and by collaborative research with Universities, Research Institutes and Suppliers to develop technologies, materials and processing methods to support green development as a permanent and sustainable strategy.'

Bridgestone has strong commitment for short term and long term to the environment and society. It has invested for ECOPIA range of products for Passenger cars and SUV. “We have also invested into R156 range of Tubeless pattern which has superior Rolling Resistance and another one R159 range of products on import basis. We also have future plan to expand the range shortly,” Satpute.

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