While you may not be seeing EVs barrage your bays, over the next 10 years, that’ll change. Get this: nearly 10% of new vehicles sold in 2021 were electric. And by 2035, 34% of vehicles on the road are predicted to be electric, according to Cox Automotive. That’s more than one-third. All trends in the automotive industry point to electric, and Sailun Tire Americas is looking to be an early player in creating tires specifically designed for the high-torque and high-load capacity these tires will need to have.
“Having a tire specifically built for EVs, we see over the next five to ten years it’s going to be more and more important,” says Jared Lynch, director of national accounts – PLT tires for Sailun Tire Americas. “With the boom of EVs, auto manufacturers are going towards that segment.”
During a recent ride-and-drive at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, the Sailun Americas team introduced its Erange EV tire that has been produced with the company’s proprietary “EcoPoint3” technology, which promises low rolling resistance and fuel economy for EV drivers of today and in the future.
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“Low-rolling resistant compounds aren’t new in the industry,” Lynch says about the technology, which he says has a leg up on competitors. “You’ll see, on a lot of older tread compounds, individuals were able to improve on two of these three performance factors [between fuel economy, wear and wet grip]. But the EcoPoint3 compound has been able to successfully break what we call this ‘magic triangle’ and make improvements on all three.”
Lynch says the EcoPoint3 technology allows for rubber, filler and a compounding agent to mix fully and uniformly under continuous liquid phase conditions. This allows for a more even dispersion of silica throughout the compound.
With this low-rolling-resistance compound, the Erange EV promises longer-lasting tread life, and in turn, a reduction in “range anxiety” for EV drivers.
“It just made sense for us to say, all right, we’re going to commit this [compound] specifically for hybrids and for EVs. It just happened to work together, so it was a pretty easy choice for us to capitalize on that,” Lynch said.
Lynch said with this new compounding technology, the company will target EVs first and then evolve the technology and tailor it to other products down the road.
In addition to an advanced tread compound, the tire will feature increased load-carrying capacity to account for the extra weight of vehicle batteries. It will also feature a Sailun’s SilentTread technology for a quiet ride.
To top it all off, Lynch said as Sailun develops tires for the EV segment and other vehicle segments, it will stay committed to its value price point.
“Especially when you compare it to OEM tires and Tier 1 tires, it’s going be a significant price decrease over that,” he said about the Erange EV.
The tire, which will come in 32 sizes and cover 80% of the EV market today, will start production in Q3 of this year and be available for dealers to order around the end of the year. Like all of Sailun’s product lines, the tire will exclusively be distributed by TBC Corp.’s NTW.
“We feel like we’re positioned as a value-based manufacturer that if we continue to improve and evolve our product, we’re going to offer the best bang for the buck in the market, and that’s going to resonate with our customers,” Lynch says. “They’re going to want a fantastic Tier 1 quality that’s offered at a value price.”
