Are all tyres the same? Of course not. A sports car has different requirements from those of a city car; the former, for example, will need maximum grip during acceleration and braking, whereas the latter will need a greater level of comfort and a lower rolling resistance in order to reduce fuel consumption. And it is clear that a touring saloon and an off-roader will use tyres designed on the basis of totally different assumptions.
The same thing happens for electric cars which, compared with traditional vehicles, weigh considerably more as a result of their battery packs, deliver much higher torque as soon as you just touch the accelerator, have to maximise their range so as not to “run dry” of energy and seek to provide as quiet an environment as possible in order to take advantage of the level of comfort generated by the almost zero level of mechanical noise.
These requirements have resulted in the development of the Pirelli Elect, a mix of technologies capable of responding to the needs of electrified cars, whether they are BEVs or plug-in hybrids. To counter the greater weight of the vehicle, Elect has responded with a reinforced structure and a better distribution of its rigidity properties in order to maintain the correct footprint on the ground.
To counter the vigorous and immediate torque, which is typical of electric motors, Elect guarantees the level of grip needed to take advantage of the car's performance but also to minimise the degree of friction with the road surface in order to preserve the range capability of the tread. Furthermore it helps the vehicle to translate every Watt of energy stored into mileage travelled, by cutting back the rolling resistance of the tyre using innovative compounds, profiles and structures.
Finally, specific designs for the tread and the Pirelli Cancelling System technology which, thanks to foam in the internal part of the tread, “absorbs” the noise generated by the tyre roll, help to allow the vehicle to travel in silence, a feature much appreciated by those who own electric cars.
For the heavier electrified cars and SUVs, too, Pirelli has introduced a further specialisation, the “HL” brand, designed to support the weight of modern vehicles equipped with batteries. Pirelli tyres which on their sidewall show the wording HL (high load) are capable of supporting a weight on the ground of over 20% more than a standard tyre and between 6% and 9% more compared with an XL tyre of the same dimensions.
That is not enough, though. Precisely because electric cars are radically different from traditional cars, they have other features which differentiate them. For example, very often they do not carry spare wheels, using instead all the space available for the batteries which drive the motor. And this brings us to the anti-puncture technology Pirelli Run Flat and Seal Inside which render superfluous the presence of the “spare tyre” that you have to fit at the roadside following a loss of pressure.
