What’s the deal with fuel efficient, low rolling resistance tires anyway?

Fuel-efficient tires aren’t new to the market to be sure but, as far as being able to purchase them at your local tire shop, they are definitely something new. The reason that they are new to tire shops is easy to explain as well as rather interesting; while automobile manufacturers have long been installing fuel-efficient tires on their new cars, replacing those tires when they are worn out with the same fuel-efficient tires hasn’t been possible until recently because tire shops simply didn’t sell them.  Anyone looking to purchase the same, exact tires that came stock with their automobile were out of luck and forced to purchase tires that, while okay, certainly weren’t as good as the tires that came stock.

That’s recently changed however as tire manufacturers have realized that, in order to increase their gas mileage, consumers all over the country have  become keenly interested in purchasing fuel-efficient tires in order to reduce their gas consumption as much as possible.  That realization caused tire manufacturers to start offering low rolling resistance tires in tire shops all across the country.

A fuel-efficient tire is simply a tire that has the aforementioned low rolling resistance, a forced that can be measured at the car’s axle in the direction that the car’s traveling. The less force that tire requires to roll forward the better, and fuel-efficient tires basically have much lower rolling resistance than many of the tires previously found in tire shops. Low resistance tires have been designed using powerful programs that have given them new types of tread design and they’re being made with newer materials that help your automobile to minimize the amount of energy that it needs to move itself forward, thus lowering the amount of gas your automobile uses.

Fuel-efficient tires will definitely cost you a little bit more than standard tires but, when you consider that they can reduce the amount of gasoline that your car needs by up to 10%, the savings alone could add up to enough that it pays for the extra cost of the better tires. Since the average set of tires will last about three years, that’s at least a full two years benefit that you get from the tires once they have been paid off.

A recent report released by the National Research Council showed that, by reducing rolling resistance by 10%, you could increase a car’s fuel economy by 1.5% during city driving and just over 2% while driving on the highway. Depending on how much you drive that could actually mean a substantial yearly savings on gasoline.

To take advantage of these gas improving facts, tire manufacturers like Cooper, Michelin, Goodyear and Continental all are now offering low rolling resistance tires in tire shops far and wide. While the savings in gasoline might not be tremendous, if you combine low rolling resistance tires with hypermiling techniques, a smaller, more fuel-efficient automobile and less frequent use of your auto, the overall savings could be substantial.

So, if your car’s tires are in need of replacement and you’re keen on keeping your cost at the gas pump as low as possible, purchasing low rolling resistance tires to replace your old, worn-out tires is certainly a great idea if you have questions about increasing your car’s fuel economy or you’d like to leave a comment about this blog, please do and we promise we’ll respond to it ASAP.