Why The Future Airless Tires Is Not Ready In The Present

Airless Tires (NPTs) promise zero punctures and value for money. But overheating and too much road contact could be why they're still off the market.

Airless tires, otherwise known as non-pneumatic tires (NPTs), seem to have always been just around the corner for decades. But still, we sit here in 2023, driving around on wheels of steel, air, and rubber. It sounds simple enough to make with our current level of technology.

Let's put it into perspective. Goodyear developed NPTs for the latest lunar rover. So it would seem that sending a Luna rover to the moon with airless tires is more straightforward than manufacturing similar NTPs for a Land Rover. There's more to the story.

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Airless tires have a problem with overheating. The friction caused by rubber meeting the road, the flexing that occurs when a vehicle changes speeds, and driving around corners cause NPTs to heat up considerably faster than regular tires. Without air, tires cannot disperse the heat caused by friction and flexing, which could lead to overheating damage and, eventually, tire failure.

A big contributing factor to overheating in NPTs is that tire manufacturers have yet to reduce the amount of contact the tire has with the road. This is a big reason your vehicle inst sporting airless tires today. Airless tires sit a lot flatter on the road surface than tires with air, and until manufacturers find a way to reduce the amount of contact the tire has with the road, friction, and drag will play a large part in keeping NPTs off the market.

The drag caused by the high amount of contact NPTs have on the road decreases the fuel efficiency of any vehicle they are installed in. Nobody wants to pay more for fuel or spend more time at the fuel pump than they do currently with regular tires. Another factor that will contribute to fuel inefficiency is the stiffness of NPTs. Without air, NTPs don't have the bounce that often plays an ignored factor in fuel efficiency.

Without the bounce that regular tires offer, the driver will feel road irregularities a lot more. This inevitably changes the way NPT users drive, causing them to slow down and accelerate more frequently to avoid damage from damaged or rough road surfaces.

The first fantastic benefit of airless tires is never having to worry about a punctured tire again. Broken glass, nails, and hitting sharp curbs or rocks at the wrong angle would all be yesterday's worries with puncture-proof airless tires. Imagine the money car owners would save if they never had to change a tire again. A long nail in a regular air-filled tire could cause a tire to blow out, which in most cases, results in the car being completely written off.

A blown-out tire is extremely dangerous even when driving at low speeds and often cause serious injury to the driver, passengers, and sometimes other in proximity to the accident. Damaging a tire in this way will be a thing of the past with NPTs, as even driving over the sharpest nail won't affect your safety in any way. All you'll have to do is remove the nail when you park and carry on your day stress-free.

NPTs have multiple financial benefits, some obvious and some a little more difficult to realize. The durability of an NTP means a lot more road miles on the same tires compared to the miles people get out of regular tires of today before puncture or damage. Because NPTs are puncture-proof, cars can lose the spare wheel. Welcome to a life with more boot space.

This extra space could allow manufacturers to install new tech to advance cars further or be left as free space for a bigger boot. The average spare wheel in a car weighs around 45 to 50 lbs. Removing the weight of a spare wheel from our vehicles will improve fuel efficiency, which means less time at the gas station and more money in the bank.

Related: Hankook Takes Biology Lessons To Develop Its Airless Tire

Michelin plans to have their airless tires on the road as early as 2024 and Goodyear in 2030. But with all the problems NPTs currently have, would we want them in the present? In an ideal world, there'd be an airless tire that offers the best of both worlds, but the technology isn't quite there yet.

Even if they were on the market, would you want a set? NPTs offer such a different drive that it would require you to learn the tolerances of these types of tires. The tires we use in the present might be full of air, but they are predictable. We know what punishment they can take, the stopping distances, and how they handle corners.

There is no doubt that when these tires are eventually released onto the market, they will have been tested more times than could be imagined. But will the average road user opt for the unknown over the known? Hopefully, we will find out in the next decade.

Jacob Lyons is an automotive enthusiast, writer, and researcher with a passion for cars and a keen eye for detail. Jacob's love of cars began at an early age, and he has since cultivated a deep knowledge and understanding of the automotive world through thorough research.He is known for his, attention to detail, an ability to distill complex topics into easily digestible pieces and curiosity about what the future holds for the automotive world.