In the wave of accelerating iterations of the global automobile industry toward electrification, intelligence, and customization, tires, as the core components of vehicles, are undergoing a profound change led by new quality productivity.
The trend of customized consumption is forcing the production model to shift from large-scale mass production to flexible manufacturing. The tightening of environmental protection regulations and competition in supply chain efficiency have made tire companies regard intelligent upgrades and logistics system reconstruction as the key to breaking the situation.
Currently, the global automobile industry is developing rapidly, the penetration rate of electrification continues to rise, and the demand for customization has exploded, becoming the core force driving the change of the tire industry.
IDC data shows that global sales of pure electric vehicles will exceed 12.1 million units in 2025, maintaining double-digit year-on-year growth.
Due to the heavy battery weight and special power output characteristics of new energy vehicles, the requirements for tire load-bearing capacity, wear resistance and rolling resistance coefficient are far higher than those of traditional fuel vehicles. This has prompted tire companies to develop special products suitable for new energy vehicles through technological innovation and production upgrades.
At the same time, the customized demand of the consumer market is breaking the large-scale production logic of the traditional tire industry.
From track-grade tires for high-performance sports cars to all-terrain tires for household SUVs, from winter-specific tires to silent tires suitable for urban commuting, consumers have increasingly diversified demands for tire functions, specifications, and performance.
Traditional production lines are difficult to meet the production needs of small batches and multiple specifications.
Judging from the current situation of the industry, the tire industry is showing a “polarized” pattern: leading companies are accelerating to seize the high-end market with intelligent layout, while small and medium-sized manufacturers are facing the dilemma of overcapacity, technological lag, and profit compression.
Statistics from “Tire Business” show that the world’s top ten tire manufacturers account for nearly 70% of the market share. Among them, giants such as Michelin, Goodyear, and Continental have increased investment in intelligence. Through measures such as smart factory construction, digital twin technology application, and logistics network upgrades, they have achieved significant results in improving production efficiency and reducing product defective rates.
Michelin’s China Shenyang factory is a benchmark base for intelligent tire manufacturing in the Asia-Pacific region.
The factory was successfully selected as a new batch of “lighthouse factories” officially announced by the World Economic Forum (WEF), becoming the first and currently the only passenger car tire manufacturing company in China to win this honor.
Michelin’s Shenyang factory is advancing the layout of new energy vehicle tire products at full speed, and the number of product specifications has increased by 340%. The total number of specifications currently exceeds 250.
This rapid expansion has posed a new test for high-speed automated production lines. The factory has deployed more than 30 digital solutions and deeply integrated artificial intelligence, machine vision and big data technologies to achieve a significant jump in productivity. Digital transformation has greatly improved production flexibility, production efficiency and product quality. It has achieved remarkable results in reducing minimum order quantity by 71%, trial production delivery cycle by 51%, and product defective rate by 36%.
Data show that the annual production capacity of the Shenyang factory has increased from less than 10 million units initially to 17.1 million units in 2025.
In July 2025, the number of silent tire production lines in the factory will be increased to 5, and the annual production capacity will achieve a leapfrog growth from 1.3 million to 5 million, an increase of up to 285%.
In addition, in the same year, the company promoted a green and intelligent manufacturing capacity conversion project, increasing the annual production capacity of passenger cars to 22.3 million units.
Continental regards the Chinese market as the core of its global strategy. Its factory in Hefei is the only production base in China. Through in-depth intelligent transformation and cross-border collaboration, it has built a high-end intelligent tire manufacturing system that meets the needs of China and the Asia-Pacific market.
After the fourth phase of the project was put into operation in 2025, the Hefei factory introduced forward-looking manufacturing processes and product technologies to comprehensively improve the automation and intelligence level of the production line. It not only greatly improved production efficiency and product quality, but also improved the ergonomic environment of the workshop through transfer automation and reduced the physical exertion of operators.
The factory focuses on the tire needs of new energy vehicles and high-performance models, and transforms core technologies such as ContiSeal self-repairing and ContiSilent silent cotton into mature products.
The fourth phase expansion project of the factory has been put into operation. It is expected that after reaching full production in 2027, the annual output will increase to 18 million passenger car and light truck tires.
By building a global smart factory network, Goodyear has achieved large-scale replication and local adaptation of intelligent production models. At the same time, it has relied on digital technology to reconstruct the full-link logistics system and strengthened the collaborative capabilities of the global supply chain.
At its headquarters in Akron, the United States, Goodyear has built the world’s most advanced smart factory. Its smart tire testing center is equipped with more than 12,000 IoT sensors, which can simultaneously monitor performance indicators such as rolling resistance and tread wear. The testing efficiency is several times higher than traditional methods.
The base’s smart factory introduces a modular production line design, which can complete the production line switch from SUV tires to high-performance sports car tires in 15 minutes, supporting mixed line production of more than 200 specifications.
In the European market, Goodyear’s German factory has introduced a packaging automation unit, equipped with ABB series robots, to support the automatic packaging of a full range of passenger tires.
In order to realize the synergy of global production and logistics, Goodyear’s Chile factory has joined forces with Rockwell Automation and other partners to promote factory upgrades and build digital management.
Currently, Goodyear is promoting its smart factory model to production bases in China and other countries to further strengthen the intelligence and collaboration of the global supply chain.
The intelligent transformation of the tire industry is not a simple equipment upgrade, but a reconstruction of the entire value chain of technology, production, logistics and services with new productivity as the core.
The deep intertwining of AI and IoT technology is allowing tire factories to complete a qualitative change from “machine replacement of labor” to “system independent thinking”. Intelligent decision-making gives factories the ability to self-optimize and self-regulate.
Digital twin technology provides a concrete carrier for smart upgrades.
The tire industry’s warehouse distribution network is gradually transforming from centralized storage to distributed response, and full-link digital visualization has become standard.
When ESG has become an access threshold for global trade from an industry issue, green and low-carbon has also become embedded in the core value development of tire companies.
The intelligent upgrading and optimization of the tire industry has actually formed a deeply binding and two-way empowering ecological relationship with automobile companies.
On the R&D side, tire companies’ technological innovation provides core support for vehicle performance upgrades; on the production collaboration side, it provides guarantees for vehicle companies’ customized production and efficient supply chain operations; on the supply chain resilience level, it helps vehicle companies build a global supply chain that is more risk-resistant.
In addition, the green transformation practices of tire companies are also in line with the “carbon neutrality” goal of vehicle companies, helping the automotive industry achieve green development throughout the life cycle.
Driven by new-quality productivity, the tire industry is undergoing a profound industrial change. The practices of tire companies have not only consolidated their own competitive advantages, but also promoted the entire industry chain to form a virtuous cycle ecosystem through feedback to the entire industry chain of automobile companies.
In the future, competition in the tire industry will be a comprehensive contest of technological innovation capabilities, ecological integration capabilities, and sustainable development capabilities. Continuously embracing technological changes, restructuring service systems, and deepening cross-sector collaboration will further promote the high-quality development of tires, the “first step cornerstone.”
