Last year, Continental Tire introduced Taraxagum, a rubber material made from dandelion roots. Today, the company used the material to make a car winter tyre—the WinterContact TS 850 P.
“After several years of intensive development work together with the Fraunhofer Institute, we are excited to be taking the first dandelion tyres onto the road,” said Nikolai Setzer, Member of the Executive Board of Continental responsible for the Tire Division.
“To get the most meaningful test results from the crop yield produced by our research project to date, we decided to build car winter tyres, as they contain a particularly high proportion of natural rubber. We are continuing to pursue the goal of developing tyres based on dandelion rubber to readiness for series production within the next five to ten years.”
The winter car tyres will be tested at Continental’s test site in Arvidsjaur, Sweden, where the company traditionally tests the performance of its future products under winter conditions from December to April.
“The development process of Taraxagum has been very promising so far and we are currently continuing the industrialization process together with our partners,” added Dr. Andreas Topp, Head of Material and Process Development and Industrialization for Tyres at Continental.