Going Green: Continental Offers Tire Solutions for Sustainable Fleet Management

Hanover, April 19, 2022. Continental helps transport companies and fleet operators to get their vehicles fit for the future. The aim is to make fleets more sustainable, more efficient and more digital. To this end, the technology company has brought out a range of solutions and technologies that conserve resources and improve the carbon footprint of vehicles. The focus here is on four strategic areas: climate protection, clean mobility, circular economy and sustainable supply chains. “Efficiency awareness and sustainability have long since become vital competitive factors for transport companies too,” says Ralf Benack, Head of 360° Solutions at Continental. “Consequently, low-rolling resistance tires already form part of the basic specification in many fleets. These days, though, we are looking for more – namely, sustainability throughout a tire’s life cycle.” At Continental, sustainability begins back at the material sourcing phase, extends through its manufacturing processes and continues in the form of long-lasting, energy-efficient tires. It concludes with tire retreading and the company’s efforts to make increased use in production of raw materials obtained from the recycling of old tires. The framework for this is provided by the Conti360° Solutions overall tire management package – i.e. selection of the right tire, permanent monitoring of tire data and a system to feed worn tires back into the ContiLifeCycle program, allowing tires to enjoy a second and even third life.

Alongside ContiFitmentService, which helps customers make the right choice of tire for the application at hand, another key element of the fleet solutions from Continental is digital tire monitoring with ContiConnect, featuring various modules that can be selected by the customer to suit their individual requirements. Using sensors inside the tires, ContiConnect enables fleet managers to access real-time tire data, such as pressure and temperature, for the entire fleet. Tire damage is quickly detected, preventing punctures. The tires can be constantly kept at the optimum pressure, which lowers fuel consumption. Fleets reap the benefits of longer tire service life at the same time as minimizing real-life total costs for the vehicles. Continental makes it possible to take another step towards predictive maintenance with ContiConnect 2.0 and its next-generation sensors, which provide even more tire data.

Once the tread of premium tires has worn down, another Conti360° Solutions module for fleets can swing into action: the ContiLifeCycle retreading concept (Continental brochure: „Intact Cycles, Intact Business“). “With our ContiCasingManagement program, tire casings can be returned to us to be given a new lease of life with our ContiRe and ContiTread premium retreading solutions,” explains Ralf Benack. Management of the casings is carried out via the ContiCasingAccount online portal. Recycling tire casings allows resource usage to be cut by as much as 70 percent compared to production of a new tire from scratch. In addition to this, Continental employs special technologies at the state-of-the-art ContiLifeCycle plant to allow the rubber from old tires to be reused in the production of new and retreaded tires, thereby reducing CO₂ emissions and lowering material and water consumption. “Sustainability, climate protection and carbon footprints have been key issues for the transport industry for many years now. We are seeking to help fleets tackle precisely these challenges with our solutions and support them on the road towards sustainable fleet management. This is also why our unerring focus on sustainability has been enshrined in our ‘Vision 2030’ strategic program,” remarks Benack. “Our reconditioned ContiRe EcoPlus HT3 tire makes us the first retreading company in the EMEA region to offer new and retreaded tire models whose mileage performance and rolling resistance are virtually unchanged.” The reconditioned ContiRe EcoPlus HT3 boasts low rolling resistance, resulting in excellent fuel efficiency. The Conti EcoPlus Generation 3 tire line was introduced to offer fleets improved fuel efficiency in long-distance operations.

With the updated ContiRe EcoPlus HT3 385/65 R22.5, Continental is offering a retreaded tire model for the EMEA region whose properties in terms of mileage and rolling resistance are virtually the same as those of a new tire. The ContiRe EcoPlus HT3 boasts low rolling resistance, resulting in excellent fuel efficiency. “We have introduced the Conti EcoPlus Generation 3 to offer fleets improved fuel efficiency in long-distance operations,” concludes Benack.