The Non-Pneumatic Tire Market Is Expected To Be Neither A Fragmented Nor Consolidated One

Since the beginning of the 20th century, many tire manufacturers made several attempts to develop non-pneumatic tires (NPT) based on elastomers and innovative tire designs that could provide the same mechanical properties as conventional tires. The first non-pneumatic tire was used in the early 1970s by NASA in its Lunar Roving Vehicle. The concept of non-pneumatic tires was introduced to overcome the limitations of pneumatic tires (PT) such as dependency on air.

Flat tires, tire blowouts, and worn-out tires are the most common issues associated with pneumatic tires. It is estimated that every second, seven flat tires occur in the United States alone. This pertains to around 220 million flat tires per year. Further, there have been many accidents across the world because of tires. For instance, in the United States alone, more than 700 fatalities are caused each year due to tire-related issues. According to studies, it has also been found that the fatality rate because of tire-related issues have been more than that of cell-phone driving deaths.

However, being in its nascent stage of development the NPT designs suffered disturbing issues that prevented this technology from being widely adopted. Many companies have successfully developed the range of non-pneumatic tires that would eliminate the hazards of conventional tires and at the same time, will be competitive with few models of non-pneumatic tires.

For instance, many companies such as Bridgestone, Hankook, and Michelin have introduced their non-pneumatic tires with the aim of mass production in the nearby future for defense as well as the civilian sector. Few off-road vehicle manufacturers company also introduced their new off-road vehicle models equipped with non-pneumatic tires. Off-road vehicle manufacturer Polaris has introduced their new Sportsman WV850, a military-grade all-terrain vehicle (ATV), outfitted with the non-pneumatic tires.

How could Global Non-Pneumatic Tire Market address the COVID-19 concern?

As of 19 March 2020, the total number of global confirmed cases has reached 236,420. China has the largest number of confirmed cases as COVID-19 first appeared in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has been rapidly increasing in Italy and Iran, at 41,035 and 18,407, respectively. The emergence of new cases in Asian countries has been slowing after many governments restricted travel from countries where COVID-19 is widely spread and raised entry barriers to prevent spread within the country.

The global spread of COVID-19 has disrupted global supply chains and decreased labor availability, thus impacting manufacturing plants globally. Far more concerning is the automotive industry.

The automotive industry was already impaired when COVID-19 started rapidly spreading within China. China accounts for roughly one-fourth of global light vehicle production and manufacturing sites had to be shut down amid labor shortages, province lockdowns, and logistic problems. This was not only a problem for China, but also for automotive manufacturers in other countries as well. Automotive manufacturers who relied on auto part imports from China were also impacted. Several manufacturers had to reduce production rates or even shut down for a few days because of low auto part inventory.