Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire LLC (BFNT) is providing its environmentally friendly Ecopia line and Potenza RE92 and B381 tires as original equipment on a variety of electric and hybrid vehicles from Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
"Bridgestone is working hard to do our part in reducing automotive emissions in our environment," says Mark Emkes, chairman, CEO and president of BFNT.
All of the tires have been specially designed for lower rolling resistance, with light-weight, high-strength construction, says the company. This maximizes fuel efficiency, which contributes to cleaner running vehicles. Many of Bridgestone's other tires are also designed with low rolling resistances as a key attribute.
The vehicles include the Toyota Prius, RAV4 EV and e-com, the Honda Insight, Civic Hybrid and EV PLUS, and the Nissan Altra and Hyper-Mini.
Emkes notes that while the ultra-small Nissan Hyper-Mini and Toyota e-com were never intended for commercial sales, many of these other vehicles are now available in the U.S. market.
Bridgestone has supported solar car racing and fuel mileage research with their Ecopia line of low rolling-resistance tires, developing valuable technologies for use on commercial vehicles.
"These applications show how we have been able to take what we learned in the development of the Ecopia line and incorporate it into our other tire lines, to meet the requirements of the original equipment manufacturers for these vehicles," Emkes says. "Given the success of the Ecopia in solar powered car contests, this is an important continuation of our long-term practice of 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.'"
