Bridgestone debuts EV-specific Turanza tire optimized for Tesla and Mustang Mach-E owners
Veteran tire manufacture Bridgestone has launched its first EV-dedicated tire in front of a crowd in Southern California this morning. The Turanza EV is a grand touring tire designed to handle the heavier-torque of electric vehicles through all seasons. Several new Bridgestone technologies also make their debut on the Turanza tire, which will be targeted toward Tesla and Ford EV drivers to begin.
Bridgestone Corporation’s history dates back to the early 1930s in Japan, so the company clearly knows tires. EVs however, have been a slightly different story. In our previous coverage, we’ve seen Bridgestone support the EV revolution through partnerships.
First, Bridgestone’s EMIA (Europe, Russia, Middle East, India, Africa) arm developed a specific tire for the now defunct Lightyear One solar EV. In August of 2021, Bridgestone announced a partnership with autonomous commercial EV developer Einride, to become its sole tire supplier for US fleets. In exchange, Einride is helping the tire manufacturer electrify its truck fleets in a quest to make a majority of its vehicles EVs.
Most recently, we saw Bridgestone partner with Blink Charging to deploy Level 2 EV chargers at dozens of its retail locations. As you can see, Bridgestone has been supporting EVs for years, but has yet to deliver its own EV-specific tire for the mass market… at least until now.
Bridgestone debuts first tire dedicated to premium EVs
The Turanza EV tire made its debut at the Electrify Expo in Long Beach, California today and features some unique technology from the tire manufacturer. First off, the new replacement market tire is Bridgestone’s first in North America to feature ENLITEN technology, which is manufactured using 50% renewable and recycled materials, while still providing longer wear life and all-season performance.
Recycled materials include carbon black from old tires, synthetic rubber from plastic bags and bottles, renewable soybean oil, and even rice husk silica which is usually a discarded byproduct during rice harvesting.
Also debuting on the Turanza EV tire is Bridgestone’s PeakLife technology – a next-generation polymer that enhances tread wear resistance, enabling longer tire life. President and chief sales officer for Bridgestone Americas Riccardo Cichi spoke to the potential of the company’s first EV-dedicated tire:
With the accelerated progress toward an electrified vehicle fleet, we’re thrilled to launch a tire that is designed to help drivers get the best overall experience from their electric vehicles, including ride comfort, all-season driving performance and excellent wear life. We are also excited to introduce ENLITEN, which marks a major pivot in how we approach tire technology and design to deliver both exceptional dynamic performance and increased use of renewable and recycled materials.
The Turanza EV tire is designed, developed and manufactured in North America – the targeted market it will serve first. To begin, Bridgestone states its initial five sizes will fit the Tesla Model 3, Model S, Model X, Model Y, and Ford Mustang Mach-E. Goodyear also has EV specific tires in its lineup.
Looking ahead, Bridgestone is planning 13 additional tire sizes that will launch in early 2024. The Turanza EV comes with a 50,000 mile limited warranty and is “wet road ready.”
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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