Congratulations, world. We did it. Since the Clean Air Act was passed in the 1970s, we have dramatically reduced emissions of carcinogenic particles from our cars and other sources, a change that has years added to our lives.
That's the good news. The bad news is that we can now spend more time focusing on the remaining sources, including some unexpected ones. In the era of electric vehicles, tires are becoming the largest emitters of particulates and, as we have seen, whether it is the microplastics in our shrimp or the preservatives in our salmon, they are having a disruptive impact on our environment.
In the era of electric vehicles, tires are becoming the largest emitters of particles
Gunnlaugur Erlendsson wants to do something about it. The affable Icelander founded Enso to address what he saw as a growing need for better tires for electric vehicles. The UK-based company's next big move is coming closer to home: a $500 million tire factory in the United States specifically to make eco-friendly tires for electric vehicles.
Well, greener, anyway.
Enso Foundation
Enso's founding in 2016 was “a little bit ahead” when it comes to EV adoption, according to Erlendsson. “There were only a few research reports done on tire pollution, and almost none of them were really about the issue of microplastics or air pollution,” he said.
But the writing was in the way. The industry's first engines, like the Tesla Model S, offered much more power than the internal combustion cars they competed with, but they also came with huge weight penalties. A Model S Plaid, for example, is about the same size as a Lexus ES, but weighs about 1,000 pounds more and has more than three times the power. More weight and more power means more tire wear, leading to costly and frequent trips to the shop for new rubber.
While EV-specific tires are becoming more common, Erlendsson says most tire manufacturers are too focused on partnering with automakers and shipping new tires with new cars. “So even though there is technology today to make much better tires, it's not reaching 90 percent of the tire industry, which is the aftermarket,” he said.
While Erlendsson said Enso is working to develop partnerships with those same vehicle manufacturers, the company's U.S. business model will focus on the 90 percent, creating tires with the right fits for popular electric vehicles, regardless of the brand, and then selling them directly to customers.
More life, less pollution
What makes Enso tires different? Erlendsson was scant on technical details, but promised 10 percent lower rolling resistance than normal tires, which equates to a proportional increase in range. That will make your electric vehicle cheaper to run, while a 35 percent increase in tire life means less wear, fewer airborne particles and fewer old tires sent to the incinerator, where half of all American tires are going to die.
The new Enso factory will also take care of recycling. It will be truly carbon neutral, will not rely on carbon offsets, and will make tires with recycled carbon black and tire silica made from rice hulls.
But what about 6PPD, the worrying tire preservative that appears in our fish and even our bodies? Enso still uses it, but its days are numbered.
Making tires with recycled carbon black and tire silica made from rice husks
“All tire companies in the world are using 6PPD in their current production tires,” Erlendsson said. “The technology to eliminate 6PPD exists,” he added, but declined to discuss the issue further, citing restrictions due to signed confidentiality agreements. Research organizations in both California and washington state We have provided early evaluations of alternatives, but none appear to be a magic solution that will save our tires without destroying the environment.
The use of 6PPD is still permitted, but the EPA has recently issued new guidelines to monitor their presence, and earlier this year, Washington state passed a bill regulating its use. More restrictions are coming, which Enso says it welcomes.
American size goals
Enso is targeting production of 5 million tires at the new factory by 2027. Its location is still being finalized, but Enso cites Colorado, Nevada, Texas or Georgia as likely locations. With the Southeast US becoming a hotbed for electric vehicle production and the so-called “battery belt” seeing huge investments from startups like Redwood Materials, that last option might be the safest bet. .
A factory of that size will be a big step forward for Enso, which currently offers tires exclusively for fleet use in the UK, including the Royal Mail. By The GuardianA study by Transport for London, which regulates public transport in the city, shows that Enso tires live up to Erlendsson's claims of increased efficiency, reduced wear and reduced costs.
If Enso can offer that on a larger scale to American drivers, it will go against typical corporate goals of selling more things to more people. Erlendsson sees this as a way to reset the current tire economy.
“A proposal where fewer tires are sold is simply not acceptable to most publicly traded companies in this industry,” he said. “It's hard for someone with legacy manufacturing, legacy supply chains and a legacy distribution model to suddenly say, 'I'm going to make fewer tires and I'm going to spend more to make them,' without tanking their stock price. at the same time.”
Of course, turning an industry more than 150 years old upside down is not an easy task either.
