Image courtesy - Continental Tire

The global tyre industry faces unprecedented complexity as electrification, sustainability and intelligent vehicle systems reshape demands on materials, design and performance. CenTiRe, under Professor Saied Taheri, bridges gaps between academia and industry, integrating fundamental research with real-world constraints, fostering collaborative innovation and training engineers capable of navigating the evolving landscape of tyre and mobility technology.

The Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe) is a collaborative, industry-led research consortium partnered with Virginia Tech and the University of Akron, established in 2011–12 with seed funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF). At the time, the global tyre research ecosystem was strong in individual areas like materials, testing, vehicle dynamics and manufacturing but fragmented with few environments where these pieces were brought together in a sustained, pre-competitive way.

A critical gap was the disconnect between fundamental research and the practical questions industry engineers faced. Academic work often focused on isolated phenomena, while industry research and concept development (RCD) was under pressure to deliver solutions on compressed timelines.

Foundational problems like tyre-road interaction, variability and system-level behaviour rarely received attention in ways that were both rigorous and industrially relevant. Talent development was another challenge as companies needed engineers who could navigate experiments, modelling and real-world constraints, but training pathways were siloed.

CenTiRe was created to bridge these gaps by exposing students to industry-relevant problems early and consistently.

“Since its formation, CenTiRe’s role has evolved alongside the industry,” said CenTiRe Director and Professor Saied Taheri during an exclusive interaction with Tyre Trends.

“What began as a focus on core tyre mechanics and testing has expanded to include electrification-driven challenges, intelligent tyres, data-driven methods and stronger integration with vehicle control and mobility systems. Perhaps most importantly, the centre has evolved from a research hub to a long-term collaborative platform. Its value today lies not just in technical outputs but in continuity, providing a space where companies can step back from short-term pressures, share understanding and collectively address problems no single organisation can efficiently solve alone,” he added.

Taheri’s own focus on tyre and vehicle dynamics took shape during graduate work at Clemson University and was reinforced by observing how tyres were often treated as secondary in vehicle development, despite being the primary interface with the road.

Early experience across industry and academia showed that many vehicle-level challenges cannot be fully understood without deeper understanding of the tyre itself. Industry work underscored the importance of realism, while academic work highlighted the potential of revisiting often-overlooked fundamentals.

These experiences shaped his approach to applied research, emphasising physical understanding alongside practical implementation. More than three decades in the field have reinforced his belief that the most impactful research occurs at the boundaries between disciplines, organisations and theory and practice, a perspective that continues to guide both his work and CenTiRe.

CONVERGING PRESSURES

Tyre research today is being reshaped by several major shifts occurring simultaneously rather than sequentially, creating a level of complexity that is unprecedented. Electrification, higher instantaneous torque and evolving mobility expectations are placing new and often conflicting demands on tyres.

“Electric vehicles fundamentally alter the operating envelope as high torque at low speeds accelerates wear and introduces new fatigue and durability mechanisms, while increased vehicle mass raises concerns around rolling resistance, heat generation and structural integrity,” said Taheri.

At the same time, customers expect quieter and more comfortable tyres, which can run counter to traditional approaches to stiffness, robustness and durability.

These challenges are compounded by the fact that tyres are increasingly expected to function as part of an integrated vehicle system, interacting closely with advanced control systems, sensors and software.

Yet, physical understanding and modelling capabilities are still catching up, particularly under transient, highly nonlinear conditions that dominate real-world operation.

Taheri adds that sustainability is another critical layer as the industry is under pressure to reduce environmental impact without compromising safety or performance, forcing a rethinking of materials, testing methods and even optimisation criteria.

From a manufacturing and testing perspective, many existing processes were developed for a very different operating regime, assuming steady-state loading, gradual wear and clearly separated performance attributes.

He also noted that next-generation tyres, especially for electrified and automated vehicles, face higher torque transients, tighter noise, vibration and harness requirements and broader duty cycles, exposing sensitivities to material variability, curing and construction that are not always measured or controlled with sufficient resolution.

“On the testing side, a widening gap exists between laboratory validation and real-world use as standardised tests remain essential, but they often fail to capture coupled thermal, mechanical, acoustic and control-related phenomena, leading to continued reliance on correlation rather than true prediction,” contended Taheri.

Shrinking development cycles further strain this system as physical testing is costly and slow, while models and surrogate tests are asked to deliver more insight without always having robust validation frameworks.

“Data analytics and machine learning are beginning to play a meaningful role in addressing some of these pressures, particularly in areas with large, well-curated datasets such as manufacturing quality monitoring and test data analysis, where they can reveal sensitivities and patterns that are otherwise difficult to detect,” noted Taheri.

However, in performance-critical domains governed by strongly nonlinear, physics-driven behaviour, these tools function best as complements rather than replacements for physical understanding.

The most promising advances are emerging from hybrid approaches that integrate physics-based models, experiments and data-driven methods.

Overall, the central challenge and opportunity is not solving any single issue in isolation but developing integrated frameworks that intelligently manage trade-offs, supported by better physics, better data and stronger cross-disciplinary collaboration.

PUSHING THROUGH OBSTACLES

Taheri has been working on tyre-road friction, terramechanics and intelligent tyres for decades and his work is cited globally. However, these areas still remain technically challenging despite decades of prior research.

Commenting on the same, he noted, “These areas remain challenging because they sit at the intersection of multiple uncertainties that are difficult to control, measure or model simultaneously. At a fundamental level, the tyre-road interface is a highly nonlinear, transient and multiscale phenomenon involving viscoelastic materials, evolving surface conditions, temperature effects and micro- to macro-scale interactions that change continuously during operation. Even small variations in road texture, contamination or load can cause disproportionately large changes in friction behaviour.”

In terramechanics, he noted, the challenge is compounded by the deformable and history-dependent nature of the road. Soil properties vary spatially and temporally and rolling fundamentally alters the medium itself, making repeatability and generalisation difficult.

Intelligent tyres add further complexity through sensing, while ensuring robustness, durability and cost-effectiveness is inherently challenging and converting those measurements into reliable, control-relevant information remains an open problem.

“Progress in materials, sensing or modelling often reveals new limitations elsewhere and as vehicle systems evolve, particularly with electrification and automation, the boundary conditions continue to shift. Consequently, these are not unsolved problems but continuously evolving ones, with each vehicle generation raising the bar for accuracy, robustness and integration,” added Taheri.

At CenTiRe, Taheri said, addressing such complexity requires integration that goes beyond organisational structure and is embedded in how research questions are framed and executed.

Problems are defined around physical phenomena or performance gaps rather than along disciplinary lines. This ensures that materials behaviour, manufacturing variability, modelling assumptions and testing constraints are considered from the outset, rather than addressed sequentially.

People, he added, are central to this approach. Students and researchers are deliberately exposed to multiple domains, while industry partners are engaged throughout the project lifecycle rather than brought in only as reviewers. This helps create a shared technical language and reduces the risk of research fragmenting into isolated silos.

“The objective is not to make everyone an expert in everything but to ensure that insights generated in one domain are meaningful, transferable and usable across the others,” Taheri noted.

NEW VISTAS

Taheri views fundamental science and industrial relevance as mutually dependent rather than competing.

“In academia, advancing understanding, especially where assumptions or models fall short, must ultimately inform design, manufacturing or validation to have real impact. At CenTiRe, this balance is achieved by deliberately selecting fundamental problems tied to real-world constraints such as manufacturing variability, testing limits and control-system needs,” he said.

Education is central to this approach as training students to think rigorously while recognising practical constraints creates a vital bridge between science and application. The balance is achieved through alignment, not compromise, by choosing problems where scientific progress and practical implementation advance together.

One area where this is particularly evident is smart and intelligent tyres. “These tyres have the potential to fundamentally change how vehicles perceive and interact with the road, though the transformation will be evolutionary rather than sudden,” noted Taheri.

Traditionally, the tyre has been treated as a passive element in vehicle control with behaviour inferred indirectly from wheel speed, acceleration or yaw signals. Intelligent tyres allow more direct observation of the contact patch, providing real-time data on grip, load, temperature and surface conditions. This can significantly improve control robustness, especially in low-friction or rapidly changing environments.

However, integrating tyre-level information into vehicle control introduces challenges around signal reliability, latency, validation and redundancy, particularly for safety-critical and autonomous applications.

Another key issue is abstraction as raw tyre data must be converted into physically meaningful, trustworthy indicators that can be fused with other vehicle and environmental sensors.

In autonomous driving, intelligent tyres may not act as primary perception sensors, but they can play a critical supporting role by informing systems what is actually achievable at the tyre-road interface, rather than what is assumed.

“Ultimately, this represents a shift from tyres as passive components to active contributors to vehicle intelligence, requiring advances not only in sensing but also in modelling, validation and system-level integration,” said Taheri.

TRUSTED COLLABORATION

Tyre development today faces the formidable challenge of reconciling performance, safety and environmental responsibility across the entire lifecycle. Materials that deliver wet grip, durability and fatigue resistance often carry significant environmental footprints, and replacing them without introducing new risks is technically difficult.

At the same time, improving rolling resistance to enhance energy efficiency, particularly for electric vehicles, can conflict with wear, noise and grip, while higher vehicle mass and torque further complicate trade-offs.

Wear and abrasion present another concern as tyre particles are increasingly recognised as an environmental issue, yet understanding of their generation and transport mechanisms remains incomplete.

End-of-life considerations amplify these challenges, since tyres were not historically designed for disassembly or reuse, making recycling and circularity systemic design problems. Addressing these issues requires lifecycle-based thinking, advanced predictive tools and close integration of materials, manufacturing and vehicle disciplines.

Alluding to these, Taheri noted, “CenTiRe addresses these complexities through a pre-competitive collaborative model that brings together global tyre and automotive companies in a neutral, trust-based framework. By focusing on fundamentals, the centre creates shared understanding while allowing individual companies to retain proprietary advantages in design and implementation. Its role is to reduce upstream uncertainty and risk, providing rigorous, unbiased validation that benefits all members.”

Industry continues to invest in this model because the technical challenges of electrification, system integration and sustainability are too complex and costly to tackle in isolation. Beyond technical outputs, the consortium fosters a shared language, trust and a culture of collaboration that enables competitors to learn from each other without compromising competitiveness.

Looking ahead, the hope is that Taheri and CenTiRe are recognised less as a single person or centre and more as a trusted ecosystem that helped the tyre and mobility industry think more rigorously and collaboratively about tyre performance, safety and sustainability.

“Success will be measured by the engineers trained to bridge physics and manufacturing realities, the risk de-risked through sound modelling and experimentation and the elevated global technical conversation around tyres,” said Taheri.

Equally important is the role of CenTiRe in building bridges between disciplines, companies and generations of engineers, helping the industry better understand and respect one of the most complex yet underappreciated components of mobility.

Over the next decade, this vision positions CenTiRe as both a technical and cultural catalyst for the global tyre and mobility sector. n

Toyo Tire Corporation will implement organisational changes and leadership reassignments from 1st  October  2026, as part of efforts to strengthen execution of its medium-term business plan.

The restructuring is designed to reinforce strategy execution under the direct supervision of the president, in line with priorities set out in the company’s Mid-Term ’26 Plan.

Under the changes, the Americas Sales Division will be elevated to the Americas Business Headquarters and placed directly under the president. The division’s sales department will be renamed the Americas Business Development Department and transferred to the new structure.

The company will also move its ESG Promotion Department from the Corporate Infrastructure Division to the Corporate Strategy Division to align sustainability initiatives more closely with business strategy. In addition, the investor relations department will shift to the Corporate Administration Division.

Toyo Tire Corporation confirmed changes to executive responsibilities, including the appointment of Tatsuo Mitsuhata as Senior Corporate Officer And Vice-President of the Americas Business Headquarters. He will also continue to serve as representative Director And Chief Executive of Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. and President And Chief Executive of Toyo Tire North America OE Sales LLC.

Further personnel changes include Kunihiro Matsumoto becoming Deputy Division General Manager of the Corporate Administration Division, while Nobuo Yoshida will serve as General Manager of the Corporate Strategy Division.

Miho Okamoto and Junji Hirose will assume roles within the Corporate Strategy Division, overseeing ESG-related functions, while Hiroshi Ito will take responsibility for the investor relations department under the Corporate Administration Division.

Kenji Kubo has been appointed General Manager of the Americas Business Development Department.

Additional appointments include Misaki Nagao as General Manager of Quality Assurance Department No.1, while Wataru Matsumoto will assume the role of General Manager of the Commercial Tire Technical Service Department from November 1 2026.

At subsidiary level, Keiko Brockel will become President And Chief Executive of Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc., while Angelo Naval will be appointed President And Chief Executive of Nitto Tire U.S.A. Inc.

Tom Pemberton never set out to build an audience. He set out to document a Tuesday, filming the quiet, unglamorous reality of running a working farm in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire. Years later, that instinct has turned him into one of the most recognised faces in British agriculture, the man behind Tom Pemberton Farm Life.

At the LAMMA Show 2026, that instinct collided with a very different kind of machine: the global manufacturing engine of Maxam Tyre Europe, a division of the Sailun Group. The result is a new partnership under which Pemberton will fit MAXAM agricultural tyres to his own machinery and share, unfiltered, how they perform. Harry Wang, General Manager of Sailun Group Europe, points to Maxam’s credentials – testing by DLG, the German Agricultural Society, and its role as an original equipment partner to CASE IH and New Holland – as the backdrop to the deal. “Now is the time to further develop the brand and spread the word within the farming community. We feel privileged that Tom has agreed to work with the Maxam brand – and we really like his style and share the same passion for farming,” he says.

FROM A PHONE IN A FIELD TO A FOLLOWING

For farming influencer Tom Pemberton, known for his popular Tom Pemberton Farm Life digital channels, none of it was planned. “I never expected any of this when I first started putting videos online. At the beginning, it was literally just me filming bits of day-to-day farm life and showing the reality of it, the good days, the bad days and everything in between. I think people connected with that because it wasn’t polished or overthought, it was just real,” Pemberton says.

That word, real, threads through almost everything he says about his career. He never sat down with a grand plan for what the channel might become; it began with picking up a phone and filming the day’s work, whatever that happened to be. What changed everything, he believes, was honesty. “I’ve never tried to make farming look perfect because the reality is it isn’t. Some days are brilliant, and some days are stressful, exhausting and frustrating, but that’s real life in agriculture, and people appreciate honesty,” he says.

What has surprised him most is not the loyalty of the farming audience but the appetite from everyone else – a public curiosity about where food comes from that goes far beyond agricultural circles. Social media, he believes, has thrown open the doors of a world that used to keep largely to itself. “Farming used to be quite a closed world in many ways, but now people are sharing ideas, machinery, problems and experiences instantly. It’s opened the industry up massively and given people a real insight into modern farming,” Pemberton says.

That openness has reshaped his own life too. He still describes himself, first and foremost, as a farmer, but one who has found himself combining the daily rhythm of the farm with content and with brand partnerships he says he genuinely believes in. Pemberton adds. “I’m passionate about the industry, and if I can help showcase farming in a positive way whilst having a bit of fun along the way, then that’s a pretty good position to be in.”

WHY TYRES MATTER MORE THAN PEOPLE THINK

It is against that backdrop that tyres, of all things, enter the story. To an outsider, a tyre might seem like the least glamorous component on any piece of farm machinery. Pemberton sees it very differently.

“People sometimes underestimate just how important tyres are on a modern farm. They’re one of those things that can make a massive difference to productivity, efficiency and downtime, especially with the size and weight of modern machinery now,” he says.

Reliability, for him, is measured in hours lost during the exact weeks of the year when there are no hours to spare. “When you’re in the middle of summer harvesting, or trying to beat the weather, the last thing you need is machinery standing still because of tyre issues. Downtime costs money and also adds stress and pressure at the busiest times of the year,” Pemberton says.

Over time, the YouTuber has also come to appreciate the quieter ways tyres shape a farm’s performance and its footprint, from traction and fuel consumption through to the condition of the soil itself. “The right tyre setup can genuinely improve how a machine performs in the field and on the road,” Pemberton says, and it is precisely that intersection of performance and technology that drew him toward Maxam in the first place.

HOW THE MAXAM RELATIONSHIP BEGAN

His account of how the relationship began is notably unsentimental about brand marketing and notably specific about people. What attracted him first, Pemberton says, was attitude rather than advertising – a willingness on Maxam’s part to work directly with farmers and to actually listen to the people using the tyres, day in and day out.

“From the first conversations, it felt like they genuinely cared about performance and real-world applications rather than just selling a product,” Pemberton says. Since then, running the tyres has only reinforced that impression, with build quality, traction and comfort standing out under the kind of workload modern machinery now routinely demands. “Farming conditions are tough, and tyres have to cope with a huge mix of road work, heavy loads and field work, so reliability is a massive thing for me,” he says.Above all, though, he returns to a single condition for any partnership: authenticity. “For me, it’s important that any partnership feels authentic and that I can honestly talk about the products I’m using on the farm, and that’s something that’s worked really well with Maxam. If I’m going to work with a brand and put my name to something, I want to properly understand the people behind it, the quality of the product and what goes into developing it,” Pemberton says.

He is candid about why that matters so much in farming specifically: farmers are practical people who can spot inauthenticity almost immediately, which means trust has to be earned through real experience rather than through marketing language.

THE FARM VISIT THAT SEALED IT

The turning point came when the Maxam team travelled to his farm in person, a moment Pemberton returns to with evident warmth.

“The real ice breaker for me was when the guys from Maxam came over to the farm to talk things through, see the place and meet me and my family. I genuinely felt like they would have happily gone straight to work on the farm that day. That made a real impression on me and showed they genuinely cared about the partnership,” Pemberton says. Learning more about the manufacturing and testing behind the tyres only deepened that confidence, revealing an engineering effort behind agricultural tyres he suspects most people never stop to consider.

Ask him about the specific technology that has impressed him most, and Pemberton points to a campaign Maxam has been running in UK under the banner ‘More Pull. Less Fuel’, which draws on the brand’s DLG test results. It is a bold promise, he acknowledges, tackling two problems that sit at the top of almost every farmer’s list simultaneously: productivity and fuel costs. “I was curious if they could really make that stretch of increasing productivity and saving fuel at the same time, a pain point for all farmers,” Pemberton says.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS FROM THE FIELD

As for how the tyres are performing on his own machinery, Pemberton is careful not to overstate an early verdict. “To be honest, we have just started, so it’s a bit early to give some in-depth analysis. But my gut feeling from the first weeks out on the fields is very good. No traction issues even in the muddy and ultra-wet areas,” Pemberton says, adding with the kind of dry humour familiar to anyone who follows his channel that the tyres look rather good on his Maxxum too.

SOIL, SUSTAINABILITY AND THE WEIGHT OF MODERN MACHINERY

Beneath the light-hearted asides sits a more serious concern that has come to define much of modern farming: what machinery does to the ground beneath it. Soil compaction and sustainability, Pemberton says, are now unavoidable topics in agriculture, and rightly so.

“The right tyres and pressures can make a huge difference when it comes to reducing compaction, improving flotation and protecting soil structure, especially with modern machinery becoming bigger and heavier every year. Healthy soil is everything in farming and once you damage it, it can take a long time to recover,” Pemberton says. It is a subject he has grown more attentive to over the years, one that now sits alongside traction and durability rather than behind them.

None of this, in Pemberton’s mind, can be judged from a spec sheet. “You can read specs and brochures all day long, but until a product is out working in proper conditions, carrying weight, travelling on the road and dealing with different weather and soil types, you don’t really know how it’s going to perform,” he says.

Farmers, Pemberton adds, listen to other farmers above almost anyone else, which is exactly why he tries to share honest, unvarnished feedback rather than polished endorsement. For Pemberton personally, the metrics that matter most over time are simple: reliability, durability and consistent performance. “Farming is hard enough without equipment letting you down,” he says.

STAYING TRUSTWORTHY WHILE WORKING WITH BRANDS

It is this instinct for honesty that also explains how Pemberton has managed to work with commercial partners without losing the trust of an audience built on authenticity in the first place. The answer, he suggests, is refreshingly uncomplicated: only work with brands you actually believe in. “My audience would spot straight away if I was promoting something just for the sake of it, and that’s never been what my content is about,” Pemberton says. Whatever machinery or products appear on his channel are there because he is genuinely using them and genuinely curious about how they perform, a distinction that matters enormously to viewers who have followed his farm through years of unscripted reality.

That trust, he says, has been reinforced rather than tested by how closely Maxam and Sailun have worked with him. It began, again, with that farm visit, and it has continued since. “They really listen. Like I said earlier, they came out to the farm, spent time with me and the team here, and didn’t just leave after a quick look around. For me, that says a lot. I already feel like I know the people behind the brand personally rather than it feeling like just another partnership. That’s the true ‘in real life’ view that makes all the difference. You don’t always get that. That’s the sort of thing that builds trust and makes partnerships feel genuine rather than just business,” Pemberton explains.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE FROM HERE

So what does success look like from here, for a partnership that is only just getting started? Pemberton’s answer is less about targets and more about continuity – the relationship staying genuine and mutually beneficial as it grows, with him continuing to show his audience how the tyres perform in real working conditions and giving honest feedback drawn from daily farming life, because that, he believes, is what people relate to most. He also wants to keep expanding the content itself, offering his audience more behind-the-scenes insight into modern farming, machinery and the challenges the industry faces.

From the partnership’s side, he sees success in terms of relationships that deepen over time rather than a single campaign that fades. Farming, he points out, is changing constantly, and social media is only becoming a bigger part of how the industry communicates. There is one particular ambition on his list that captures the curiosity running through the whole partnership: a visit to see Maxam’s factories in person, to understand, as he puts it, how they do their magic.

It is a fitting note to end on. For Pemberton, this was never going to be a partnership built on a logo stitched onto a jacket or a scripted line delivered to camera. It is built on the same principle that built his channel in the first place: show the real thing, and let people decide for themselves. For a company the size of Sailun, betting its Maxam brand’s UK farming credibility on that principle is a considerable act of trust. For Pemberton, it is simply how he has always worked.

In a significant move to revive its iconic legacy in India, Dunlop Tyres is accelerating expansion plans with a sharp focus on in-house manufacturing capacity for commercial vehicle tyres and strategic collaborations in the consumer segment.

Executive Director Sakchi Ruia outlines an ambitious roadmap that leverages the brand’s pioneering heritage, embraces electrification and targets value-driven growth across key segments amid a rapidly evolving Indian tyre market.

In the competitive landscape of the Indian tyre industry, few names carry the historical weight of Dunlop. As the pioneer of the pneumatic tyre globally and a foundational player in India since 1896, the brand is poised for a significant revival.

In an exclusive interaction with Tyre Trends, Sakchi Ruia, Executive Director of Dunlop Tyres, shared her vision for breathing new life into the iconic marque, focusing on capacity expansion, segment-specific growth and adaptation to emerging technologies such as electrification.

Ruia, an MBA from Columbia Business School who brings experience from McKinsey & Company, has been instrumental in steering Dunlop’s operations since joining in 2023. Her leadership emphasises leveraging the brand’s storied heritage while addressing modern market dynamics.

“Dunlop as we all know is the first tyre brand in the world, first pneumatic tyre brand and it has been very monumental in India as well. We have very big plans for the brand and are looking to really revive the brand here. We are exploring both greenfield and brownfield opportunities,” she reveals.

The company has already made inroads in the truck and bus radial (TBR) segment, with broader ambitions spanning multiple vehicle categories. This strategic revival comes at a time when India’s automotive sector is experiencing robust growth across consumer and commercial segments, driven by rising vehicle ownership and evolving consumer preferences.

NAVIGATING A COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

India’s tyre market is one of the most fiercely contested globally, with legacy domestic players, international entrants and new challengers vying for share.

When asked about competition, Ruia embraces it as a catalyst for progress. “I think competition is good, right? I think it takes the industry forward with the competition,” she notes.

“I think we see a lot of stakeholder development, ecosystem development. Like we see a lot of machine makers are now coming to India to manufacture. And that’s because of the whole pool of all the players combined,” she explains.

Dunlop, she emphasises, on the other hand, is no newcomer. “Dunlop is not a new player in the industry. It’s a legacy player, it’s seen the wave, it’s been there.” She highlights the ample room for growth in a market where demand has not yet outstripped supply.

“I think there’s a lot of space for a lot of players right now. It’s not a space where demand is far exceeding supply still. So I think there’s a lot of space for people to really make their mark,” she avers.

Ruia pointed to supportive policies favouring locally manufactured tyres as an opportunity for Indian players, including Dunlop, to flourish. The ecosystem, she believes, benefits the entire industry and enables established brands with heritage to differentiate themselves through quality and reliability.

ADDRESSING COST-CONSCIOUSNESS AND VALUE IN COMMERCIAL TYRES

On the other hand, coming to the commercial vehicle segment, which continues to remain highly cost-sensitive, Ruia argues that true value lies beyond upfront pricing.

Discussing the competitive nature of business and the acquisition cost for commercial vehicle customers, she observes, “I think what feeds drivers value in the commercial segment is cost per kilometre. So that really gives advantage to the value players. It’s about providing value-for-money; whoever’s manufacturing quality tyres really gets value.”

She notes that Indian customers in this segment are discerning. “India is a very quality-conscious market in that regard. Because they look at cost per kilometre, not just cost per tyre. They want tyres which run longer kilometres, give better mileage. I think there’s a lot of scope and space and the market itself filters out the players,” says Ruia.

On the concept of tyre-as-a-service or cost-per-kilometre models gaining traction among competitors, Ruia expresses keen interest.

“Cost per kilometre for sure, we work heavily in the commercial segment with the TBR. We really do see that the end-consumers are very supportive for this metric. And they really value the lifelong value of the tyre that they get, not just upfront cost. Tyre-as-a-service is very interesting; we haven’t explored it yet. But that’s something which I was also very interested to hear about today,” she says.

CAPACITY EXPANSION AND SEGMENT PRIORITIES

A cornerstone of Dunlop’s future strategy is establishing in-house manufacturing capacity, particularly for the commercial segment. Ruia confirms that plans are advancing, though details remain under wraps for now.

“I think once the announcement is there, everyone will know about it. It’s initial stages right now. We’re in discussions about really formalising and crystallising the plans,” she explains.

Furthermore, the company is already evaluating both greenfield and brownfield options, with timelines tied to ongoing discussions. In the interim, Dunlop maintains presence in two- and three-wheeler tyres through partners (Ludhiana-based Ralson India), a segment close to the brand’s heritage where it once held significant market share. “Two- and three-wheeler remains very close to Dunlop’s heart. We’ve always done well in this segment,” Ruia affirms.

Passenger car radial tyres (PCR) are on the longer-term horizon. “PCR tyres again is something which is in the pipeline, not in the foreseeable future. But eventually, yes, we’d want to get into that segment as well. It is growing. So, you know, let’s see how the plans evolve. Right now, our focus is the commercial segment,” the Dunlop executive says.

Ruia explains that collaboration opportunities in the consumer segment will complement in-house commercial production.

Outlining her top three priorities for the next 3–5 years, Ruia says, “I think the top thing that we’re looking for is to definitely have in-house capacity for commercial vehicle tyres. That’s one thing which is top of mind for us. We are also looking to explore good collaboration opportunities in the consumer segment. Because we’re going to be doing in-house manufacturing for the commercial segment. That’s going to be number two. And number three, I think we really, really want to focus on the new-age solutions.”

EMBRACING ELECTRIFICATION AND NEW-AGE TECHNOLOGIES

Electrification represents both a challenge and a major opportunity for the global automotive and allied industry. With trucks and buses increasingly shifting to electric powertrains, tyre requirements are evolving rapidly.

“I think, electrification is a very interesting and exciting opportunity for everyone across the board, consumer and commercial,” Ruia says.

“There are some unique requirements for tyres, such as lower rolling resistance, ability to handle higher instantaneous torque, reinformed sidewalls and lower noise due to the silent nature of EVs. Electric vehicles are going to be much heavier, less noisy and have high torque requirements. So tyres will also need to take shape accordingly,” Ruia says.

Key adaptations will include better sidewalls, enhanced load resistance and reduced noise levels. “I think the industry as a whole will develop tyres to meet those requirements. I don’t think it’s going to be an option for anyone (to not develop EV tyres). But we’ll all evolve to meet those requirements,” she says.

Ruia stressed that the tyre industry will align with government focus on EVs. “I think the government is also focusing a lot on EVs. And I think the tyre industry will flow with that demand,” she adds.

She mentions that new-age product development, particularly for EVs, forms a critical part of Dunlop’s forward-looking strategy.

As Dunlop moves to formalise its expansion plans, the focus remains on quality, heritage and innovation. Ruia’s pragmatic yet optimistic outlook underscores a brand ready to reclaim its position by combining legacy strengths with forward-thinking investments in capacity, partnerships and technology.

For the tyre industry, Dunlop’s revival signals not just renewed competition but also fresh momentum in expanding choices for consumers in India. With in-house manufacturing on the horizon and a clear emphasis on value-driven performance and electrification, the company is positioning itself for sustainable, long-term growth in one of the world’s most dynamic markets.

The Tire Society will hold its 45th Annual Conference and Business Meeting on Tire Science and Technology on 22–23 September at the University of Akron, as the industry turns its attention to digitalisation and data-led development.

The not-for-profit organisation said the event, themed “Reinventing the Tire: Digital Transformation, Data-Driven Advances, and Predictive Methods”, will bring together engineers, researchers and executives from manufacturers, suppliers, laboratories and universities across North America, Europe and Asia.

The two-day programme will feature presentations from invited speakers and researchers on developments in analytical, experimental, digital and computational science of tyres.

Young Gon Shin, Vice-President of Hyundai Motor Company’s MSV Chassis Engineering Design Group and chair of its Tire System Expert Committee, will deliver the opening keynote. His address, “Reinventing Tire Development for the SDV Era: Closing the Loop through Connected Data and Digital Twin Transformation,” will examine the impact of electrification and software-defined vehicles on tyre development.

Across five technical sessions, nearly 20 presentations will cover topics including tyre models for vehicle simulation, physics-based modelling, durability and rolling resistance, lifecycle analysis, and emerging technologies such as tyre sensors and hydroplaning detection.

The programme will also include two plenary lectures. Thomas J.R. Hughes of the University of Texas at Austin will present “The Finite Element Method and Isogeometric Analysis: Past, Present, Future”, while Bruno Finco and Girish Radhakrishnan of MOVEdot will discuss “AI Agents in Tire R&D: Accelerating Design Cycles Across Lab, Track, and Simulation.”

The first day will conclude with an awards banquet featuring the Society’s annual awards presentation led by Jason Bokar of Michelin Americas R&D Corporation, and a speech from Chris Chapman of MongoDB titled “The Data Intelligence Layer: Building Agentic Systems with Memory.”

Day two will include the Society’s annual business meeting and state of the organisation address, alongside distinguished award presentations.

“This year's program captures a real inflection point in our industry — tire engineering is moving from a testing-centered process to one built around connected data, digital twins, and predictive models,” said Adam Stackpole, 2026 conference programme chair. “We're excited to bring the tire science community together in Akron to share this work and set the agenda for what comes next.”

Registration details and the full programme are available via the organisation’s website.