Continental has long been committed to developing cutting-edge products and technology that make a positive impact for our customers, but it doesn't stop there. Continental is at the forefront of a rapidly evolving mobility sector that seeks innovative solutions to create a more connected and sustainable future. Many large fleets and logistics providers already feel increased demand from the market to explore new methods for reducing their carbon footprint, including use of alternative fuels and EV-compatible solutions. To answer this call, Continental has developed two green, efficiency-boosting concepts that can make an immediate impact on sustainability efforts: the Conti Urban Green tire and ContiTread EcoPlus Green retread.
The Conti Urban Green concept tire contains nearly 50 percent renewable and recycled materials while the tread itself is composed of just under 70 percent renewable material. This includes sustainable materials including rapeseed oil, silica from rice husk ashes, and responsibly produced natural rubber. While retreading worn out tires is a sustainable practice in its own right, Continental takes it a step further with the ContiTread EcoPlus Green concept. Thanks to the high content of renewable materials used in the tread, retreading with the ContiTread EcoPlus Green concept increases the overall share of sustainable materials to 90 percent. This special rubber compound, along with wider tread and exceptionally rigid profile allowed Continental’s tire developers to achieve considerable reductions in rolling resistance and optimize noise emissions.
With tighter margins, increased competitiveness and mounting environmental concerns, fleet digitalization has never been more important to sustainable business operation. For this reason, the Conti Urban Green concept was designed with built-in intelligent sensors that pair with Continental's tire monitoring platform, ContiConnect. This digital tire management system for fleets large to small serves as the foundation for greener fleet management. ContiConnect digital tire monitoring provides fleet managers with real-time data so they can keep their tires running at optimal performance levels. This improves fuel efficiency, reduces maintenance and replacement costs and maintains operator safety. The modular format of ContiConnect can be tailored to any customer's needs all with the aim of lowering emissions, conserving resources, and keeping vehicles on the road.
How the Conti Green Concept makes a difference:
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The sustainable tire concept Conti Urban is specially designed for electrified urban bus and delivery traffic. The amount of renewable and recycled materials is almost 50 percent.
Already approved for road use, the Conti Urban Green Concept tire contains just under 50 percent renewable and recycled feedstock. The tread of the Conti Urban – the part of the tire that is in contact with the road – contains 68 percent renewable materials, including rapeseed oil, silica obtained from the ash of rice husks and responsibly sourced natural rubber originating from a partnership between Continental and the German development aid agency (GIZ). Cutting-edge digital technology, local involvement in the cultivation of rubber and close collaboration with strong partners create transparency here and ensure a high level of traceability along the entire value chain for natural rubber. In addition to recovered carbon black and recycled steel, Continental uses reclaimed rubber to build the tire. This recycled rubber originates primarily from Continental’s innovative retreading and recycling plant for truck tires in Hanover, Germany.
A sustainable solution for bus and truck customers combining low rolling resistance retread with a 3G casing.
Continental’s 3G Casing offers maximum performance and retreadability, helping deliver the Lowest Overall Driving Cost for your truck tires and bus tires.
Like the majority of Continental’s commercial vehicle tires, the Conti Urban can also be retreaded, a process that breathes new life into worn but intact tire casing by replacing the old tread with a new one. The continued use of the versatile 3G casing, which contains an especially high share of all the materials used in a tire, pays off: once the tire is retreaded with a Green Concept tread, the share of renewable and recycled feedstock rises to more than 90 percent. By 2050, Continental projects 100 percent sustainably produced materials in all tire products to achieve full climate-neutrality along the entire value chain.
The Conti 3G Casing is an innovative casing design that provides increased retreadability through durability innovations in the bead, belt package, and rubber compounding.
Continental’s 3G Casing offers maximum performance and retreadability, helping deliver the Lowest Overall Driving Cost for your truck tires and bus tires.
For the most efficient tire management, Conti Urban tires were designed with built-in intelligent sensors. Predictive monitoring through the new generation of Continental's in-tire sensor helps save fuel and be more efficient with resources. As part of the ContiConnect digital tire management system, temperature and pressure data are constantly monitored and transmitted via Bluetooth or radio signal to any smart device for real-time guidance.
Retreading worn tires is well-established as an excellent method to recycle resources and increase the long-term value from each tire. The Conti Urban can also be retreaded, breathing new life into the worn but intact tire casings with brand new treads manufactured from 70 percent renewable and recycled feedstock. This means that after the Conti Urban’s first retread, the share of sustainable material in the tire increases to more than 90 percent.
The tread of the Conti Urban contains 70 percent renewable materials, including rapeseed oil, silica obtained from the ash of rice husks and responsibly sourced natural rubber. Cutting-edge digital technology, local involvement in the cultivation of rubber and close collaboration with strong partners create transparency here and ensure a high level of traceability along the entire value chain for natural rubber. In addition to recovered carbon black and recycled steel, Continental has also used reclaimed material to build the tire. This recycled rubber originates primarily from Continental’s innovative retreading and recycling plants for truck tires.
At the IAA Transportation 2022 in Hanover, Continental showcased a range of highly innovative tire solutions aimed at improving the sustainability of passenger and goods transport over short and long distances. Featuring the Conti Urban concept tire, Conti EcoPlus HT3+ EV trailer tire, and Conti EfficientPro Gen 3+ long distance tire, Continental clearly showcased how it is contributing to greater sustainability and efficiency in the transportation industry.
The Conti EfficientPro Gen 3+ is Continental’s new and improved version of its long-distance tire, which is especially known in the original equipment business for trucks. The focus of further development was on minimizing rolling resistance and, in turn, the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions generated during freight transport.
Unveiled at IAA 2022, the tread profile on this Conti EcoPlus HT3+ special trailer tire prototype is exceptionally robust and features deep traction elements such as sipes for high performance throughout the tire’s lifetime. In addition, a special tread compound ensures a good balance between traction and mileage. The final serial production tire will also have a reinforced belt package to counter the impact of propulsion of the driven axle.
