In a significant announcement, Bridgestone Americas has launched the Turanza EV grand touring all season tyre, a first of its kind offering from the company dedicated to premium electric vehicles (EVs). The tyre has been designed to cater to North America's top-selling EVs, namely all Tesla models and Ford Mustang Mach-E. The launch took place at the Electrify Expo in Long Beach, California.

The Turanza EV incorporates Bridgestone's novel ENLITEN™ technology, designed to enhance all-season performance, provide a longer wear life, and pave the way for incorporating renewable and recycled materials in tyre production. Additionally, the tyre marks the debut of the company's new PeakLife™ polymer, a cutting-edge polymer technology aimed at enhancing tread resistance to wear, thereby extending tyre life.

Key Features

The Bridgestone Turanza EV tyre brings together a host of groundbreaking features:

• ENLITEN Technology: The Turanza EV tyre is the first North American replacement market tyre to incorporate ENLITEN technology. The new technology seeks to optimise all-season performance and provide longer wear life. It also allows for the integration of renewable and recycled materials in tyre products. These materials include recycled carbon black from end-of-life tyres, synthetic rubber derived from recycled plastic bags and bottles, renewable soybean oil, and Rice Husk Silica derived from a typically discarded byproduct of rice harvesting.
• PeakLife Polymer: This new polymer technology is introduced to enhance tread resistance to wear, aiding in extended tyre life. The creation of PeakLife involved an extensive network of unique bonds between the innovative polymer and reinforcing particles, enabling the tyre tread to last longer.
• Maintain Long Mileage Range: Bridgestone’s Turanza EV tyre is designed to maintain a long mileage range per charge without sacrificing tread life or performance.
• Sustainable Longevity: The Turanza EV tyre comes with a 50,000-mile limited warranty, thanks to its next-generation tread compound featuring the new PeakLife polymer technology.
• Whisper-Quiet Ride: The QuietTrack technology embedded in the tread design minimizes road noise, providing a quiet, comfortable ride.
• Wet Road Ready: Wet braking and handling on par with selected leading OE touring tyres are offered, enabling confident control on wet roads while ensuring excellent tread wear. The Turanza EV tyre is consistent with Bridgestone's sustainability goals of using 100% renewable and recycled materials by 2050, as it incorporates 50% renewable and recycled materials.

The tyre is currently being manufactured at Bridgestone's passenger car tyre production facilities in Wilson, North Carolina, and Monterrey, Mexico, where significant investments have been made to facilitate the use of ENLITEN technology.

Q&A with Dale Harrigle, Chief Engineer of Replacement Tires at Bridgestone Americas

Bridgestone offered Tyre Reviews the change to ask some questions about the new Turanza EV, and where Bridgestone see the market in the future:

How does the Turanza EV tire specifically cater to the needs of electric vehicles compared to conventional vehicles?

Electric vehicles, in comparison to their ICE counterparts, continuously generate high torque, which accelerates tire wear. The Bridgestone Turanza EV features a next-generation compound, called PeakLife™, which was designed with wear life and all-season performance in mind. Developed by our team of engineers and scientists at our Americas Technology Center in Akron, Ohio, the PeakLife polymer proceeded from the research and development phase to in-market product application in less than two years to prioritize significantly improving the Turanza EV’s wear capabilities. Bridgestone PeakLife technology focuses on improved wear resistance, which can help extend tread life, and is engineered to deliver lower levels of rolling resistance to increase vehicle fuel efficiency.

Additionally, electric vehicle tires account for upwards of 30% of cabin noise in the absence of ICE engine noise, which makes tires a bigger factor in the overall customer experience in terms of comfort. Also, with their generally higher vehicle mass, EVs tend to have stiffer suspensions, which can impact how resonant sounds from the road and tire are transmitted to the cabin. To offset this, the Turanza EV is equipped with Bridgestone’s QuietTrack technology, which are in-groove tracks to help prevent high-frequency noise by breaking up the resonant frequency. We also apply non-chamfered slots on the Turanza EV’s shoulder ribs and an optimized three-pitch sequence in the tread block to mitigate pattern noise. 

Could you elaborate on the benefits of the new ENLITEN technology? What makes it stand out from other technologies in the market?

The Bridgestone Turanza EV tire is the first replacement market tire in North America to feature ENLITEN™ technology. ENLITEN isn’t a single technology; it’s a suite of technologies that will continue to evolve over time. ENLITEN technology is engineered to help optimize all-season performance, provide longer wear life, and allow for the incorporation of renewable and recycled materials in its tire products. A key new ENLITEN technology debuting on the Turanza EV is our proprietary new polymer material called PeakLife™, a next-generation polymer technology that enhances tread resistance to wear, aiding in enabling extended tread life. PeakLife is a truly breakthrough technology and the real silver bullet in the Turanza EV development. Another ENLITEN technology featured on the Turanza EV is the use of renewable soybean oil in the tread in replacement of petroleum-based oils. Additionally, the tire includes recycled carbon black from end-of-life tires, synthetic rubber derived from recycled plastic bags and bottles, and rice husk silica derived from rice husks, which gives a meaningful purpose to a typically discarded byproduct of rice harvesting. The Turanza EV also features a new shoulder design that is more aerodynamically efficient. 

How do the Bridgestone Turanza EV tires help in reducing noise levels? Could you explain how QuietTrack technology works?

Bridgestone QuietTrack consists of in-groove tracks to help prevent high-frequency noise by breaking up the resonant frequency. On the Turanza EV application, we also apply non-chamfered slots on shoulder ribs and an optimized three-pitch sequence in the tread block to mitigate pattern noise. 

How does the production process for the Turanza EV tire differ from conventional tire manufacturing processes, given the significant use of renewable and recycled materials?

The new Turanza EV tire is manufactured at Bridgestone’s passenger car tire production facilities in Wilson, North Carolina, and Monterrey, Mexico, where significant new investments were made to accommodate the use of ENLITEN technology, including new rubber mixing and tire construction tools and technologies. Bridgestone Turanza EV tires are manufactured using synthetic rubber associated with recycled plastic, helping keep more plastics out of landfills and the environment. 

How have you balanced performance and sustainability in the Turanza EV tire?

As a global leader in tires and rubber, the launch of our Turanza EV tire marks an important step in our journey to becoming a sustainable solutions company. We understand the role electric vehicles play in our efforts to realize a cleaner, more sustainable and low-emissions transportation system. Tires are a critical contributor to the progress we will make in ushering an electrified mobility future. Not only do tires impact aspects like performance and range, but most essentially tires carry life, so we must ensure not only outstanding performance and improved sustainability, but also exceptional safety. The Bridgestone Turanza EV is the first replacement tire to feature Bridgestone’s ENLITEN technology, which is engineered to expand all-season performance for wet and winter conditions, provide longer wear life and incorporate more renewable materials than Bridgestone’s current tire offerings. Turanza EV provides excellent tread life, minimal ride noise and confident wet grip while also incorporating 50% renewable and recycled materials.   

Conclusion

As always, we're very excited to see how the new EV specific tyre performs in tests, and will try and include it in the next Tyre Reviews EV test! Stay tuned!