GOODYEAR RELEASES ELECTRICITY-GENERATING TIRE CONCEPT

We’ve been getting a lot of positive news about electric cars recently. This week at the Geneva International Auto Show, Goodyear unveiled a new concept tire called the BH03. While we don’t know why it is called that, we do know that Goodyear’s new tire looks radical and could potentially generate electricity for electric cars by converting the friction heat of the tire on the road. Check out the video below…

The tire will collect heat in multiple ways, primarily from the friction heat, but also the heat generated by tire flex. The most interesting thing about these tires is that they can still collect heat while not moving! Small patches on the tire’s thermo-piezoelectric layer can collect heat from the sun on a hot day.

Watch the concept video:

More photos:

While this is still just a concept, with no clear way to power the car and no release date, we are excited by the potential. What do you think? Do you think this technology is practical and could be available in electric cars soon?

• deafgun
  As much as the idea is intriguing, I wonder if hitting the potholes will create more electricity? But its a wonderful idea that sun facing tires can also produce power for the car while either parked or on the road.
• GEA
  Excellent idea! However, durability and ROI will need to be proven before I would purchase.
• http://solar-power-now.com/ Solar-Power-Now.com
  Amazing tire technology. Yes, everything is starting to really look good for a full adoption of electric vehicles in the near future. These tires are just one of many tech advances in this space.
  • zeetz2004
    My limited knowledge about piezoelectricity generation prohibits me from making too many assumptions, but I’m learning…….apparently without friction or flexing movement of any kind, is not necessary, to generate electricity…….you good folks are probably more knowledgable than I am, but I am a hobby inventor w/ a sketchpad,……and after researching the propulsion of the “Mars Rover,”…I think it’s called, the builders are basically taking a raw heat source, (low grade, low emission radiation from spent uranium, and taking the “direct emitted heat….and converting it from direct heat to a direct conversion to electricity…with nothing rotating, in a circular fashion, around magnets or stators,,,,,,,,someone has the technology to directly take any heat source…and directly & spontaneously emit electricity,….are the giant automakers hiding this technology…….this would solve the problems of ‘range extenders’ for vehicles like Tesla….& Nissan Leaf cars……this would seriously jeopardize oil company profits, however…the conversation about generating electricity is becoming fascinating…gigantic amounts of static electricity is present all over our planet.
• Charles F. Easter
  Stupid, increasing Drag to produce power requires more power to drive the car.
  • Dr_StrangeKill
    It’s stupid to assume that this would increase drag. If, say, they decided to put a coil in the center of the tire, and rotate a magnet around it as the tire rotates to generate electricity, THAT would increase drag, as you would have fundamentally changed the function of the tire. While it WOULD generate electricity, you are correct to assume that it would NOT produce MORE power than was input to it. Think of a hand crank generator. You twist the crank, and it produces electricity, but it never produces ENOUGH electricity to continue turning the crank. YOU have to input power to the crank, which it converts into electricity.

    The difference between my simple and overly simplified example above, and the tires goodyear are creating, is that you are not ADDING any new function to the tire. Instead, they have simply found a way, by using the fundamental properties of the materials used to create the tire, to HARNESS power that ALL of our tires CONSTANTLY generate. Namely: heat, and friction. The piezoelectric materials used in the tire do not require additional input to generate energy. Rather, by the natural flexing of the tire on the road (the same flex that YOUR tires exhibit during everyday travel,) the material generates an electric charge. See the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eam1-9FDD-Y or this wiki article for more information about piezoelectric materials: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity.

    TL;DR: THEY ARENT INCREASING DRAG, BUT HARNESSING THE NATURAL HEAT AND FRICTION ALL TIRES EXPERIENCE WITH REALLY COOL MATERIALS
• Dingo
  how MUCH electricity??!
• John Moore
  No. Just no.
• Miles Harding
  I’m looking forward to a long free lunch at the release!