Cooper Tire Completes Work on Fuel Efficient Tires for DOE

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company has announced it has completed work under a $1.5 million government grant to develop advanced tire technology aimed at increasing vehicle fuel efficiency.

The grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, called for Cooper to develop technology for light vehicle tires that delivered a minimum 3 percent improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency while lowering average tire weight by at least 20 percent, all without sacrificing performance.

The company reported that it “was successful in developing technologies that exceeded the project’s goals, delivering an average fuel efficiency improvement of 5.5 percent and weight reduction ranging from 23 percent to 37 percent in concept tires.”

Noted Chuck Yurkovich, Cooper’s Senior Vice President of Global Research and Development, “Improving vehicle fuel efficiency by a minimum of 3 percent was accomplished by developing a product with more than 30 percent lower rolling resistance. Reducing tire weight by a minimum of 20 percent required us to make a product that is five to six pounds lighter than the baseline 26-pound tire. All of this was accomplished without any trade-offs in performance or durability.”

As a result of the grant work, Cooper has already incorporated new tire modeling technology into its development process and is evaluating long wearing and fuel efficient tread compound technology for use in future tires for the replacement and original equipment markets.

Category: Green, Wheels & Tires