Electric Vehicle Charging Could be Tire-Driven with Goodyear’s BH-03

We know that electric vehicles run the roads on tires, just like every other conventional vehicle, but Goodyear thinks that maybe the tires could recharge the car, at least a little bit, while in motion.

At the 85th International Geneva Motor Show, we get to see new cars of every shape and size, even new hybrid cars and electric vehicles. Automobile parts manufacturers also figure big in the auto shows, such as Goodyear, who presented two tire concepts that could change the future of fuel economy. The first one, dubbed BH-03, is especially interesting to plug-in vehicle drivers.

The Goodyear BH-3 features two ways to generate electricity as the tire rolls down the road. The first is a weave of thermoelectric fibers, which converts heat energy into electricity. The second feature uses piezoelectric materials to convert the flexing of the tire into an electrical impulse. Interestingly, Goodyear’s tire concept uses the exact same phenomenon that causes tire blowouts to generate electricity, which could be used to feed energy back into an electric vehicle battery.

As a tire rolls down the road, it is constantly changing shape. This flexing, in an underinflated tire, generates a lot of heat, which can lead to a blowout. In the Goodyear BH-03 concept, this flexing is converted into electricity, as well as the heat, which is also converted to electricity. Now the BH-03 just needs a self-regulating tire-pressure feature, and it would be perfect! Just how much electricity a set of these tires could generate was commented on by Goodyear, but the company did say that it could ease electric vehicle range anxiety if put into production.