The company appointed Joe Burke as the new Vice President of its North American commercial business, succeeding Dave Beasley, who is retiring after a 40-year career with Goodyear. Burke will report directly to the president of Goodyear Americas, Steve McClellan.

Continental officially inaugurated its new multimillion-euro corporate headquarters on the Hans-Böckler-Allee campus, in Hanover, Germany on December 13, 2023. The campus consists of six buildings, housing over 2,400 employees, in both the Tires and ContiTech groups.

Currently, the multinational is retreading more than one million of its commercial vehicle tyres a year throughout its retread plants/subsidiaries worldwide. This all falls below the ContiLifeCycle* sustainable strategy, aiming to maximise tyre longevity for customers and improve environmental sustainability.

The factory employed 1,070 staff and produced 2,100 TBR tyres a day. Further reasons for closure included the impact on local communities, issues with the rubber supply chain and the overall profitability of the factory.

The company purchased the Delta S3 simulator from Ansible Motion and has been fine-tuning it for its specific use over the last 12 months. This will allow for virtual tyre tests, which is expected to shorten development times and save on raw materials when compared with track testing.

The Board of Directors has approved a proposal to build a new EUR 540 million commercial vehicle tyre production line at its Hungarian plant in Rácalmás by 2027.

The new Bridgestone Ecopia Steer Enliten and Ecopia Drive Enliten tyres are available from January 2024 in size 315/70 R22.5. Four additional sizes will be added next year and one further size in 2025. Bridgestone will add the Ecopia Enliten trailer tyre in Q4 2024.

The subsidiary of the American trailer components supplier showcased systems for tyre pressure monitoring and solar power generation specifically for semi-trailers.

The company launched the second generation EnduRace RAT 2 truck tyre range. Available in 315/70 size for 22.5-inch rims, Apollo claims the tyre offers a 5% increase in mileage and a 10% increase in rolling resistance and traction when compared to its previous generation of tyres.

The two sites set to close are the tyre plants located in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg and Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate.

The company unveiled a new generation Kmax truck tyre range with new sizes available from Q1 2024. The new Kmax S (steer) and D (drive) Generation Two 17.5 and 19.5 were on display at the show.

The e-SMaRT AU56 City product is set to go into series production in Q2 2024. The first tyres to roll off the production line will be 275/70 R22.5 tyres, designed for the urban electric bus market.