Smart Tire Revolution
The demand for tires specifically designed for new energy vehicles is surging, and smart tires are rapidly being implemented. With the continuous increase in the number of new energy vehicles, the supply of tires designed for high torque and heavy vehicle weight is falling short of demand, leading to a structural restructuring of the market.
The latest statistics from the Ministry of Public Security show that by the end of 2025, the number of new energy vehicles in China had reached 40.92 million, accounting for 11.58% of the total number of vehicles. In 2025 alone, 13.52 million new vehicles were registered, accounting for 46.82% of all new vehicle registrations. This rapid growth has directly triggered a rigid demand for specialized tires.
The technological characteristics of new energy vehicles have placed disruptive demands on tires, which is the core reason for the surge in demand for specialized tires. Compared to traditional fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles are generally 10%-30% heavier due to their heavy battery packs. At the same time, the electric motors can output peak torque instantly upon startup, placing far greater shear forces and impact pressures on the tires than on traditional vehicles.
This necessitates specialized tires with higher load indexes, stronger wear resistance, and lower rolling resistance. Low rolling resistance tires can reduce energy consumption by 5%-8%, and a 15%-20% reduction in rolling resistance coefficient can increase the range of new energy vehicles by 3%-5%.
For models with a range of 500 kilometers, this translates to an additional 15-20 kilometers of range, directly impacting the consumer's driving experience. Furthermore, with the elimination of engines in new energy vehicles, tire noise has become a major source of noise, making quiet and comfortable tires a necessity rather than an optional feature.
This surge in market demand has directly led to a supply shortage of specialized tires. Data shows that the market size for specialized tires for new energy vehicles reached 11.2 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for 14.1% of the overall tire market, an increase of nearly 10 percentage points compared to 2021. However, this still falls short of meeting the rapidly growing market demand.
Against this backdrop, international brands and domestic companies are increasing their investment, shifting the focus of industry competition from price wars to technology wars. Leading companies like Michelin and Cheng Shin have pioneered deep collaborations with domestic OEMs to launch customized tire products. Meanwhile, domestic brands such as Linglong and Sailun have leveraged their rapid response capabilities to capture market share in niche markets, with domestically produced new energy vehicle tires contributing 37% of the market share by 2025.
Intelligentization has become a core direction for the tire industry's upgrade, and smart tires are rapidly being implemented and popularized. Facing the higher safety and maintenance requirements of new energy vehicles, companies like Michelin and Cheng Shin, in collaboration with domestic OEMs, have launched smart tires equipped with in-tire sensors, achieving a leap from passive wear management to proactive management.
These smart tires can accurately monitor tire pressure (accuracy ±0.08 bar), tire temperature (±1℃), and tread wear (accuracy 0.05 mm), and upload the data to a cloud platform in real time via vehicle-to-cloud connectivity. Using AI algorithms, they provide predictive maintenance suggestions with an accuracy rate of up to 92%.
More importantly, the smart tire data can be linked with the vehicle's BMS (Battery Management System). For every 0.1 bar drop in tire pressure below the standard value, energy consumption increases by 1.2%. By optimizing energy recovery intensity in real time, driving range efficiency is further improved.
Currently, smart tires have achieved large-scale application, with some high-end new energy vehicles already featuring them as standard equipment. Examples such as the Michelin eC9ACY smart tires on FAW-Volkswagen's ID series and the customized smart tires on the NIO ET7 demonstrate the commercialization process of smart tires.
At the policy level, the EU has mandated that all new cars equipped with direct TPMS (Tire Labeling Management System) by July 2024, and China's "Tire Labeling Management System" is also driving tire technology towards intelligent and green upgrades.
Looking ahead, with the popularization of L2+ intelligent driving and the deepening of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, smart tires will become an important sensing terminal for vehicle-road collaboration.
The environmental target of increasing the proportion of recycled materials used to 25% will also drive the iteration of smart tires towards greener standards, providing core support for the high-quality development of the new energy vehicle industry.
