The future of tyres

[jon-]

Just in case anyone is interested in the progression in the tyre world, the next 10 years are going to bring some rather drastic looking changes.

Gone will be the days of 205/55 R16 being the popular size, as we move to EV and the ultimate quest for rolling resistance, the focus will move to tall and narrow sizes such as 155/55 R19 (fitted to the i3)



Will take me a while to get my head around.

Edited by jon- on Thursday 9th January 10:13

[Camaro]

jon- said:

... the focus will move to tall and wide sizes such as 155/55 R19 (fitted to the i3)

Do you mean narrow?

[DMN]

I predict they will mainly be round.

[GadgeS3C]

I'd be interested to know how much grip that will give. Drivers seem to have become accustomed to driving with an abundance of grip - has the rubber compound technology improved enough to provide sufficient grip from a 155 section to keep numpties on the roads.

Or will we return to cars that actually need to handle not just grip - please!

[muffinmenace]

It would also take a while for the stock to distribute I'd have thought, try not to get a puncture anywhere remote for a while if you're in an i3

[jon-]

Camaro said:

jon- said:

... the focus will move to tall and wide sizes such as 155/55 R19 (fitted to the i3)

Do you mean narrow?

good spot, you win. Edited

[jon-]

GadgeS3C said:

I'd be interested to know how much grip that will give. Drivers seem to have become accustomed to driving with an abundance of grip - has the rubber compound technology improved enough to provide sufficient grip from a 155 section to keep numpties on the roads.

Or will we return to cars that actually need to handle not just grip - please!

A car like the i3 would not normally run on something larger than 175/55 R15, so we're not actually giving up that much width, and with a larger circumference, I believe we should get more longitudinal surface area (someone please correct me if not).

Bridgestone have stated the new tyres offer better wet performance than the current sized equivalent.

[GadgeS3C]

jon- said:

Bridgestone have stated the new tyres offer better wet performance than the current sized equivalent.

I'm no tyre expert but that could suggest a reduced contact area - but I'm sure it's much more complicated than that.

[Dave Hedgehog]

no thanks i want to stop, i will stick with wide sticky tyres and V8s

[TLandCruiser]

I'll let others run around in their little electric boxes and over take them all while they sit in a traffic jam with flat batteries!

[Bill]

jon- said:

Bridgestone have stated the new tyres offer better wet performance than the current sized equivalent.

Are they trying to spin the change on the back of improved resistance to aquaplaning?

Personally I'm quite happy to go with your original post of tall and wide: 265/65 16 FTW

[dtmpower]

http://m.moderntiredealer.com/article/2194/the-ski...

Interesting read. Do you think we'll see aftermarket 'narrow' wheels for existing cars and then suiting the narrow tyres ?

[mids]

dtmpower said:

http://m.moderntiredealer.com/article/2194/the-ski...

Interesting read. Do you think we'll see aftermarket 'narrow' wheels for existing cars and then suiting the narrow tyres ?

Thanks for the link, that was a good read, especially the last paragraph on page 4 about the wet weather grip. I got several opportunities to boot the i3 from standstill in the wet on my test drive and was impressed with the traction and I've read road tests of it pulling 0.79 lateral G in the wet. You don't really expect that after you've seen the tyres.

Another design feature going alongside these narrower tyres is the aerodynamically 'flat' alloys. You can see it in the pic at the top of this thread and on the VW XL1 in the linked article.

[skyrover]

I can see more people sticking aftermarket wider wheels and tyres on their narrow EV's

[Ozzie Osmond]

Various manufacturers are looking at "tyres" which require no inflation so can never be abused by under-inflation or get a puncture.

Check this link, https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=airless+tyres&am...

[anonymous-user]

jon- said:

A car like the i3 would not normally run on something larger than 175/55 R15

I disagree. A BMW mini runs between 175 and 225 depending on the model. Only the really crappy models runs with 175s. Same with the Fiesta etc 175 to 215.

I'd suggest that the "typical" tyre size for a car like the i3, were it not an ecowagonTM would be around 195 these days.

[trackerjack]

To some extent what handling and cornering we get from our cars is dependant on decent roads.
I have driven on lots of islands in the med and even there the roads are mostly good to smooth. In this country they are descending into third world tracks as soon as you leave the "A" roads, as a consequence low profile tyres and heavy alloys are being destroyed at an alarming rate.
I therefore predict that tyres will go back to a 60 profile at least. Shame really
but thats what you get with councils that only want pensions and high pay for themselves.

[Matt 211988]

195/55/19?!

im picturing this in my head...

[Pints]

Max_Torque said:

Only the really crappy models runs with 175s.

The Cooper is the crappy model now, is it?

[TooMany2cvs]

GadgeS3C said:

I'm no tyre expert but that could suggest a reduced contact area - but I'm sure it's much more complicated than that.

Contact area is just mathematically related to the weight and the tyre pressure. The shape of the contact patch, though, adds in the tread width to the mix. So, yep, long narrow contact patches rather than short wide ones.