Continental Tire recently announced a new high-performance tire built for the 2022 Extreme E season. It is made using material obtained from recycled PET bottles.
Continental claims that the tire boasts improved reliability and performance. By using renewable and recycled materials, the company has greatly increased the sustainability of the second-generation CrossContact Extreme E tire.
About 60 PET bottles were processed and combined with silica from rice husk ash to make a third of the tire’s tread and carcass compounds. The tire manufacturer used ContiRe.Tex, it’s new technology, for the very first time.
Continental plans to incorporate the technology to produce its premium range of products later in 2022. The Extreme E also comes with reprocessed carbon black and steel.
“We have incorporated the wealth of knowledge we gained on the CrossContact Extreme E from the first season into the development of the second generation, with an even greater focus on the use of sustainable and reusable materials,” commented Nels von Schnakenburg, technical manager for Extreme E at Continental.
“With Extreme E, we test our latest technologies and developments under particularly extreme and unique conditions. The results will help us in the introduction of sustainable solutions for our volume production,” he said.
The tire comes in the same diameter, width, and size (37 x 12.5 R17) as the last season. Continental will remain as the exclusive tire supplier for the Extreme E racing series in 2022.