New Tyres Hint at Fuel Saving Potential
Hankook, one of the world’s largest tyre manufacturers, has unveiled a new type of tyre at this year’s IAA Commercial Vehicle show in Hannover, Germany. The South Korean manufacturer claims that commercial fleet vehicles, including haulage trucks and delivery vans, would benefit from the new tyre, which has been named ‘Concept Blue’.
Concept Blue has been designed with a number of efficiency benefits in mind, particularly in respect to vehicle performance and fuel saving technology. Hankook claims that the new tyre can help to reduce rolling resistance, which in turn can improve fuel efficiency. A vehicle’s fuel economy is proportional to its total resistance to motion; indeed, a vehicle’s power unit must overcome inertia, drag, friction and tyre rolling among other factors. Reducing rolling resistance can have a significant effect on fuel economy, especially in regard to commercial vehicles.
Another performance advantage offered by the Concept Blue tyre, which is said to be ideally suited to delivery vans, comes in the form of an aerodynamic sidewall and contour. The aerodynamic efficiency of Concept Blue aims to reduce overall drag. The drag coefficient of commercial vehicles directly affects fuel saving performance; in other words, the more aerodynamic a vehicle, the less fuel it will use to overcome drag. The new Hankook tyre could also offer improved levels of wear and reliability – key factors for delivery and haulage firms. Hankook also unveiled a concept trailer tyre called the ‘e-cube’ at the IAA Commercial Vehicle show in Germany.
CMS SupaTrak, one of the UK’s leading providers of vehicle tracking products and services, has welcomed the new Hankook rubber. Kate Lloyd, Marketing Manager at SupaTrak, said: “The Concept Blue tyre promises exceptional vehicle performance and fuel economy. In a time of widespread public spending cuts and rising fuel costs, the new Hankook tyre could make all the difference for haulage firms. Reducing roll resistance whilst improving aerodynamic performance can significantly improve fuel economy, which can be monitored using our vehicle tracking products”.
