Bridgestone Expands Their Ecopia Fuel-Friendly Tire Lineup
By Patrick Rall
Bridgestone debuted their Ecopia tire line, featuring a low rolling resistance design that helps to improve fuel economy without negatively impacting driving dynamics or braking. If you are not familiar with low rolling resistance tires, think about how the tires on your car or truck “flatten” a bit where they meet the ground while the car is parked. When you are driving, that same flattening occurs and that effect, in turn, creates drag that negatively impacts your fuel economy.
Bridgestone’s Ecopia lineup includes the EP422 passenger car tire and the Dueler H/L 422 light truck and SUV tire. Both feature a low rolling resistance design that improves the drag, caused by the tire’s natural properties, by 36% compared to traditional passenger car tires and 42% compared to standard light truck tires. This lowering of the rolling resistance by such a substantial amount reflects in fuel economy, improving the efficiency of the vehicle in question by 4%. So by simply installing the Bridgestone Ecopia tire on your car or truck, you can improve your fuel economy by 4%.
To display the effects of the low rolling resistance tire, Bridgestone had two 2011 Honda Civic sedans placed on the back of flatbed trucks. One had the standard OEM tires and the other was fitted with the Ecopia EP422 – everything else was equal, including the rims used and the weight of the driver. The flat bed trucks angled their ramps to 17%, and with both Honda Civics in neutral, the two cars were set adrift down the ramps and onto a perfectly level stretch of a closed-circuit race track. Using only their intial momentum from rolling off of the flat bed trucks, the Civic fitted with the Ecopia tires coasted substantially farther than the Civic equipped with the OEM tires.
However, the “flattening” effect that a tire has can also help to absorb some of the shock of daily driving on harsh public roads. So to get a feel for the open road, Bridgestone provided us with a variety of vehicles equipped with Ecopia tires. My test vehicle was a gorgeous 2011 Cadillac Escalade with 20″ Dueler Ecopia tires. In cruising around the Phoenix area, there was no obvious harshness in the ride or noticeable decrease in stopping performance, as the low rolling resistance tires provided just as smooth of a ride as standard light truck tires.