2025 Global Tire Technology Awards List
On March 4, 2025, the results of the 2025 Tire Technology Award, an important award in the global tire industry, were announced. Similar to 2024, the 2025 Tire Technology Award also attaches great importance to the concept of sustainable development, and three of the awards are related to the sustainable development of the tire industry.
Unlike 2024, companies from China made the list this year-Huaao Technology won the title of "Industry Supplier of the Year", which is the only Chinese company on the list in the Global Tire Technology Awards.
Nokian came back to life and won the biggest award
This time, at the Hannover Tire Technology Expo, we saw the reborn Nokian Tire. This European snow tire king, which has been silent for nearly three years, won the "Industry Contribution Award" for its opening of a zero-emission manufacturing plant in Oradea, Romania.
Since 2020, more and more tire companies have released sustainable development goals, but the first tire company to achieve a zero-emission factory is Nokian. The Romanian factory Nokian is its alternative to Russian production capacity.
In 2022, due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Nokian sold its Russian factory and was in a supply crisis in the same year. Although it tried to take over the lost 17 million tire production capacity through OEM cooperation and US production capacity, the actual operation was still a drop in the bucket - it could not completely make up for the lack of production capacity.
Nokian must rebuild the factory in Europe. And Nokian simply went all out and made full sustainable planning for its new European factory, the Romanian factory, which eventually achieved complete zero emissions and sustainable energy supply.
In the third quarter of 2024, the Romanian factory was put into production, and the operation for more than half a year confirmed the possibility of the factory's complete zero emissions. Every tire company will experience difficulties in its development, but if it wants to fight back and get out of the desperate situation and return to the peak, it depends on the courage and ability of the decision makers.
In 2023, Nokian announced that it would temporarily leave the Chinese market; in 2025, as production capacity is restored, will Nokian come back to eat the cake of the Chinese passenger car tire market?
German Continental won the "Tire Manufacturer of the Year" for four consecutive years
The "Tire Manufacturer of the Year" was awarded to German Continental again. This is the fourth time that the manufacturer has won the award since 2022.
German Continental has always maintained its leading level in product quality, factory operation efficiency and brand influence.
In 2024, German Continental provided supporting services to 9 of the 10 highest-producing electric vehicle OEMs in the Asia-Pacific region. This is why German Continental decided to continue to expand production capacity in Thailand in 2024.
In addition, in order to further improve the global supply capacity of off-road tires, German Continental spent about 100 million yuan to expand production capacity in Sri Lanka. In addition to the "Tire Manufacturer of the Year", German Continental's tire factory in Lusado, Portugal, won the "Environmental Manufacturing Award" for its sustainable development initiatives. Since 2024, the factory has been implementing its carbon-neutral production process.
Michelin Primacy 5 wins "Tire of the Year"
As the world's number one tire manufacturer, Michelin's "fifth-generation tire" Primacy 5 (Haoyue 5) won the "Tire of the Year" award in 2025.
This tire can be used for fuel vehicles, new energy electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, and performs well on both dry and wet roads.
In addition, the energy-saving performance of Michelin Primacy 5 has increased by 5%, which is Michelin's implementation of its "All Sustainable" sustainable strategy-not only for a better travel experience, but also to reduce the impact of tires on the environment. It is reported that Michelin Primacy 5 has a longer mileage and reduces the environmental impact by 6% over its entire life cycle.
It is reported that Michelin Primacy 5 is expected to land in the Asian market this year.
Goodyear Sustainable Technology wins "Sustainable Tire Design Award"
Goodyear won its third tire design award related to sustainable development with its ElectricDrive Sustainable Materials (EDS) tire. Although the 2025 Tire Technology Award only mentioned Goodyear ElectricDrive Sustainable Materials.
But Goodyear's breakthrough in sustainability is not limited to materials. On June 27, 2024, Goodyear stated in its "2023 Corporate Responsibility Report" that it has launched a passenger car tire - EcoReady, which contains up to 70% sustainable materials. The proportion of sustainable materials used is the highest level in the industry before the end of 2024!
Bridgestone won the "Tire Concept of the Year Award"
Bridgestone won the "Tire Concept of the Year Award" for its "Lunar Concept Tire" that can be applied to lunar rovers.
"Tires carry life" is the tire manufacturing concept that Bridgestone adheres to. In addition to repeated breakthroughs in road mobility, Bridgestone continues to empower space exploration and is committed to providing more stable mobility support for lunar rovers under extreme conditions on the moon.
The development of the "Lunar Concept Tire" also fits the corporate commitment in the "Bridgestone E8 Commitment" - smooth travel: committed to creating a worry-free travel experience, and using the power of innovation to help the world pursue its dreams.
Sumitomo Rubber wins the "Annual R&D Breakthrough" Award
In 2025, Sumitomo Rubber won the "Annual R&D Breakthrough" Award for its "Active Tread" technology.
Sumitomo Rubber's "Active Tread" technology can help tires adjust the tread conditions according to changes in road conditions in any road conditions.
As early as 2017, Sumitomo Rubber mentioned that "Active Tread" technology will become the key technology behind its smart tire concept, that is, the "sensing core" technology that converts tires into sensors by installing professional algorithms in the vehicle braking system.
In recent years, Sumitomo Rubber has been a frequent visitor to the tire technology award list. In 2024, Sumitomo Rubber won the 2024 Manufacturing Environmental Achievement Award for its use of hydrogen energy at its Shirakawa plant.
On January 8, 2025, Sumitomo Rubber announced that it would acquire the Dunlop trademark and other rights of the Dunlop brand in Europe, North America and Oceania from Goodyear for US$526 million (RMB 3.856 billion). This also means that Sumitomo Rubber, which has regained full control of Dunlop, will further demonstrate its advanced R&D technology in Dunlop tires around the world.
"Annual Tire Manufacturing Innovation Award" & "Annual Material Innovation Award"
In addition to the tire companies' continuous improvement in R&D capabilities, the excellent performance of tires also requires more advanced manufacturing processes. The three major awards in the 2025 Tire Technology Awards were awarded to upstream suppliers. The first is the "Annual Tire Manufacturing Innovation Award".
The award was given to VMI, a Dutch machinery supplier. VMI won this award because it achieved integrated quality monitoring through the MAXX and MILEXX platforms.
The "Annual Material Innovation Award" was awarded to Bekaert, a tire reinforcement material supplier. Bekaert's sustainable "super-stretch" reinforcement material designed for passenger car and truck tires helped win the "Annual Material Innovation Award".
It can be seen that the sustainable development of the tire industry has been promoted to upstream material suppliers. In the segment of affirming suppliers' contributions to the tire industry, a Chinese company made a stunning appearance!
Huaao Technology won the "Industry Supplier of the Year"
This is one of the most important awards in the 2025 Tire Technology Awards. Huaao Technology won this honor for its innovation in the field of tire vulcanization.
The innovation includes servo motor-driven manipulators and automatic airbag replacement technology. After more than 20 years of deep cultivation in the industry, Huaao Technology has always adhered to the concept of "creating equipment for high-quality tires around the world" and provided world-class equipment and services to tire companies.
In 2020, Huaao Technology was nominated for the "Tire Industry Supplier of the Year" at the Tire Technology Expo.
A more sustainable future
As the awards are revealed one by one, the future of the tire industry has become clearer - more sustainable. The operation of the global economy depends on the convenience of travel without exception, which is also a great contribution of the tire industry to human activities, but at the same time, tires have always been regarded as the "black pollution" of the earth because of their impact on the environment during manufacturing and use.
The future tire industry hopes to provide more help for human travel while bringing less impact to the environment through technological changes.
To achieve this goal, the upstream and downstream of the tire industry are doing their best to exert their capabilities. Of course, more and more Chinese companies are also participating in this process, contributing Chinese wisdom and strength to the development of global green tires.
