Continental reveals sustainable tyre concept at IAA Mobility

Continental CEO Nikolai Setzer with the GreenConcept. At over 50%, the tyre contains a particularly high proportion of traceable, renewable and recycled materials.

At this year’s IAA Mobility in Munich, Continental is presenting innovative and sustainable solutions for the future of global mobility. One of the product highlights is a world first in the form of a particularly sustainable tyre concept: the Conti GreenConcept.

The company says the Conti GreenConcept’s integrated sustainability profile sets new standards. Continental’s development engineers and material experts have worked on three levels to achieve this: at more than 50 percent, the tyre contains a particularly high proportion of traceable, renewable and recycled materials. The tyre concept is based on innovative, resource-saving lightweight technology and ensures an extended service life thanks to a renewable tread.

The proportion of renewable raw materials used in the Conti GreenConcept is 35 percent. The organic materials used include natural rubber from dandelions, silicate from the ashes of rice husks, and various vegetable oils and resins, which significantly reduce the amount of crude oil-based materials. In addition, the Conti GreenConcept is made from 17 percent recycled materials. As well as processed steel and carbon black, Continental is using polyester from recycled PET bottles in the casing of a tyre for the first time.

Thanks to a special lightweight design, the developers have significantly reduced the weight and rolling resistance of the concept tyre. All the individual improvements together result in significantly lower rolling resistance. Based on internal analysis, this is around 25 percent lower than that of a tyre with class A rolling resistance according to the EU tyre label, the best in this area. The Conti GreenConcept, therefore, has a measurable positive effect on the environment. Lower rolling resistance means the vehicle consumes less energy, which in the case of electric vehicles extends their range by up to 6 percent.

Another advantage of the tyre is its renewable tread. The Conti GreenConcept can be replaced multiple times with little effort in terms of time and materials. This vastly improves resource conservation, because renewing the tread three times would ensure that the material used for the casing is halved in relation to its total mileage.