Continental has been named tyre manufacturer of the year.
An international jury also praised the company for the recycling of rubber from end-of-life tyres in conjunction with the retreading of truck tyres at the ContiLifeCycle plant in Hanover.
The award was presented at a ceremony held at the Tyre Technology Expo fair in Cologne, Germany, by journal Tire Technology International, to Jörg Nohl, vice president engineering tyres, and Christian Sass, head of Continental Truck Tyre Retreading EMEA.
Jury member David Shaw, head of research at Tyre Industry Research, said: “To my mind, Continental has combined the global strategic view with great products and a vision of a more sustainable future.
The new plant in Sumter, USA, shows commitment to a global future, while the Hurricane machine demonstrates a desire to reduce, reuse and recycle. Meanwhile, their car and truck tyre products continue to win praise from independent testers and fleets.”
Also, Bridgestone 'ologic' technology was voted “Tire Technology of the Year” at the awards.
Bridgestone has developed its ologic technology for the BMW i3 electric. Through both larger tyre diameter and narrower tread width, the technology keeps dry and wet traction and handling performance comparable to standard passenger car tires, while reducing rolling resistance
The Tyre Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence acknowledges endeavor in the field of tyre development and manufacturing.
A shortlist of contenders is drawn up based on nominations from readers and the editorial team at Tyre Technology International.
The shortlist is then passed on to an independent jury of international tyre experts who evaluate the nominees and select the winners.
The awards are presented each year in February at a ceremony staged at the Tyre Technology Expo fair in Cologne, Germany.
For further details visit http://www.tiretechnology-expo.com.
Jeremy has been a journalist for 30 years, 20 of which have been in business-to-business automotive. He was a writer and news editor on AM-sister brand Fleet News for three years before setting up the AM website. For the last five years he has been Bauer B2B’s head of digital helping to manage the digital assets of AM, together with Fleet News, Commercial Fleet, Rail and Smart Transport.
Steve Campin - 17/02/2014 08:54
Great results and dialogue here. A problem we continue to face is that consumers and tyre resellers both demand wider & wider tyre fitments, even though the marginal (if any) improvements in road-holding and handling are more than offset by losses in refinement, ride comfort, controllability, & economy (running costs). This upward pressure on tyre sizes is passed through from consumers to the Car Manufacturers (as Marketers) and from tyre resellers to Tyre Manufacturers (as Marketers). Many high-performance cars would be much nicer with narrower (say 205- section) tyres unless they really have too much power to transmit to dry road surfaces. I often take the opportunity to downsize width slightly when I change out the first set of tyres on new vehicles.