Beyond rolling resistance: A balanced approach to California’s replacement tire efficiency requirements

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Beyond rolling resistance: A balanced approach to California’s replacement tire efficiency requirements

August 21, 2026

RubberWorld

Rancho Cucamonga, CA – Dunlop Tires North America (DTNA), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd., recognizes the environmental objectives behind efforts to reduce tire rolling resistance and improve vehicle efficiency. We do not discount the importance of those objectives, nor do we oppose responsible efforts to improve the efficiency of the products our industry manufactures.

While environmental impact is highly important, our concern is that the new rules do not fully address the complexity of tire design since a tire is not developed around a single performance characteristic.

Depending on the application, a tire is engineered to include a balance of rolling resistance, traction, tread life, durability, handling, load capability, weather performance, ride, noise and cost.

DTNA believes California must be equally careful to ensure that improving one of those characteristics does not unintentionally compromise the performance, choices, affordability and competition that consumers depend upon from the replacement tire market.

The ultimate measure of this program should therefore not simply be whether California achieves lower tire rolling resistance. It should be whether California achieves a better overall outcome for the environment without creating a material adverse impact on consumers, consumer choice, competition or trade.

ORIGINAL-EQUIPMENT TIRES AND REPLACEMENT TIRES SERVE DIFFERENT PURPOSES

Understanding this issue begins with understanding why original-equipment and replacement tires exist. Original-equipment (OE) tires are developed in close cooperation with vehicle manufacturers for a particular vehicle platform. They are engineered to satisfy a specific combination of performance requirements established during development of that vehicle.

Those requirements can include ride, noise, handling, braking, weight, durability and rolling resistance. They also support vehicle manufacturers’ obligations and objectives associated with Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements—the federal standards governing average fuel economy across a manufacturer’s vehicle fleet.

Rolling resistance can therefore carry significant importance during OE tire development because reducing the energy required to move the tire contributes to the overall efficiency of the vehicle and helps vehicle manufacturers meet these regulatory fuel-economy objectives.

While that is a legitimate engineering and regulatory objective, it prioritizes, in part, a public-policy requirement rather than solely optimizing the tire for the individual consumer, the vehicle throughout its useful life, or every application in which that vehicle may eventually operate.  That distinction is fundamental to DTNA’s concern.

Consumers may prioritize tread life, wet or winter traction, durab

*Source: Rubber World. For reference only.