The eco-friendly tyres designed for greater EV efficiency

The take-make-dispose model behind traditional tyre manufacture is being challenged by a new UK company with greener ambitions and an innovative route to market. Enso, which was formed just six years ago, has developed more efficient and eco-friendly tyres exclusively for electric vehicles, distributed directly to vehicle fleets on a subscription model. "The advent of EVs and a growing awareness regarding the impact of tyre emissions on the environment inspired the formation of Enso," says Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, the company's founder and CEO whose background is private equity and venture capital. "Our purpose is to serve the EV sector in a sustainable way." It's a noble aim but Enso which, last year, was named one of the UK's 'hottest start-ups', faces competition from the world's five major tyre makers that together produce two billion tyres annually. Last year, Pirelli launched its first high-load (HL) tyre for EVs that it claims can support 20% more weight than a regular one while offering high levels of grip and ride comfort plus extended vehicle range. However, referring to Enso's recent success when, in a hypermiling exercise, a Renault Zoe shod with Enso tyres travelled farther than an identical car wearing OE Michelin Primacy rubber, Erlendsson says, "We've already shown a small company like ours can beat an OE. The EV tyre market is small; our mission is simply to claim our own space in it." Erlendsson won't disclose his company's tyre formulations and, at least for the moment, can't reveal the company that produces his tyres other than to say, "Its plant is brand new and the best in the business." He will, though, talk about the other plank in Enso's business strategy, its tyre subscription model. Not satisfied with offering the market a new, dedicated EV tyre with range and emissions-optimised characteristics, Enso is also side-stepping the traditional distributor sales channel and directly offering its tyres on subscription to fleets, a common practice in the bus and truck market but almost unheard of in the car and commercial sectors. An Enso subscription requires no upfront payment, while a typical charge to the customer is one pence per mile. "Enso is incentivised to increase tyre durability since, unlike traditional trye makers, our revenues aren't linked to volume. Instead, our offer to fleets is that we believe our tyres' slower wear rates will give their vehicles a longer operating life between tyre changes, so reducing downtime and replacement charges, while extending vehicle range and helping the planet by reducing emissions. By supplying directly to the customeron subscription, we retain more margin." Enso's tyre subscription is part of the company's 'tyres as a service' model, a term inspired by the 'Transport as a service' (Taas) vehicle rental model that could replace car ownershipin future years. Later this year, in partnership with taxi manufacturer LEVC and Zeti, a company dedicated to financing zero-emission vehicles, Enso will begin supplying London's largest taxi fleet with its top-line EV tyres, targeting improvements in range as well as reductions in tyre emissions. "It'll be the perfect opportunity to test our Tass model," says Erlendsson. Traditional tyre makers will be watching. How Enso is reducing tyre wear Aside from its mould-breaking subscription model, Enso founder and CEO Gunnlaugur Erlendsson knows Enso's real edge lies in what he claims to be its more sustainable, eco-friendly EV tyres. As tyres, which are largely made from crude oil, wear down they emit pollution in the form of particulates. Present not only in the air, these particulates also constitute up to 28% of all ocean microplastics and exceed those emitted from vehicle exhausts. Particulate pollution is a bigger problem for EVs as their increased weight and torque causes tyres to wear out faster (by as much as 20% according to a report by Morgan Stanley) than regular vehicles. Some major manufacturers insist EV tyres wear no faster than regular ones. In reply, Erlendsson insists the relationship between a vehicle's weight and tyre wear 'is simple physics'. He quotes Richard Kramer, CEO of Goodyear, who in a recent interview said that EV tyres can wear up to 50% faster than regular ones. "It was his argument for selling more tyres!" says Erlendsson. Nevertheless, despite the physics Erlendsson says his tyres wear more slowly than rival products and so produce fewer particulates. They also, he says, increase vehicle range on a single charge and can be recycled to make new Enso tyres. To test these claims, they are being fitted to delivery firm DPD's fleet of electric vans as well as to 15 operated by Royal Mail. "We're expecting to show that Enso tyres are more efficient in terms of extending range and reducing pollution but until the final results are known, we're not saying by how much," says a cautious Erlendsson.