As part of the EU-funded ZEvRA project, German tyre maker Continental has developed a concept tyre made from around 43% recycled materials.
The project name ZEvRA stands for “Zero Emission Electric Vehicles Enabled by Harmonized Circularity.” The two-year EU project that will conclude in 2026 is aimed at optimizing the circular economy of electric vehicles along the entire value chain. Continental is the only tyre manufacturer in the consortium.
Tyres consist of numerous high-performance raw materials which are precisely balanced to ensure safety, efficiency and longevity. These complex technical requirements make circularity particularly challenging. Incorporating a high percentage of recycled materials into a safety-critical product while still meeting high performance standards therefore constitutes a significant step forward. The concept tyre demonstrates the compatibility of sustainability and performance, achieving the highest rating for the EU rolling resistance label.
The ZEvRA concept tyre consists of recycled tall oil, steel, rubber from end-of-life tyres and polyester fibres made from recycled PET bottles. Continental also leverages technologies such as pyrolysis, which involves extracting materials like recovered carbon black (rCB) from end-of-life tyres so they can be repurposed for another use.
Since 2023, recovered carbon black has been employed at the Korbach site in all newly produced solid rubber tyres that are fitted primarily on forklift trucks. In addition, sand – which forms as a residue in foundries, for example (rSand) – is used in a recycling process to manufacture an alternative silica variant. Recycling keeps materials in circulation and replaces the need for primary raw materials.
Continental adds it is continually increasing the share of recycled and renewable materials. Since 2022, polyester casings made from recycled PET bottles have been used in selected passenger-car tyres.
With the UltraContact NXT, launched in 2023, the company introduced a production tyre with up to 65% renewable, recycled and mass-balance-certified materials. In 2025, the share of purchasedrenewable and recycled production materials in Continental’s tyre portfolio stood at 28%. This is set to rise to at least 40% by 2030.