Low-Resistance Tires
There was an article on the front page of the auto section in my local newspaper on Sunday with the title, “Reinvent the Wheel-Automakers put low-resistance tires, once reserved for hybrids, to wider use.” The article was written by Scott Burgess of the The Detriot News. The article talks about how automakers are looking for any way to improve gas mileage on their cars…even one mile counts these days. Low-resistance tires are tires that roll easier on the road. This happens because the materials and tread design are different. Low-resistance tires can give up to two more miles per gallon of gasoline.
These tires have basically been used and somewhat reserved for hybrid vehicles, but many automakers including Ford will be using low-resistance tires on all of their 2009 compact SUVs coming out. The 2009 Ford Escape has these energy- saving tires as well. The only hitch to these tires is that they cost more. The cost of replacing the low-resistance tires for the Ford Escape would be about $150 to $260 per tire. That is definitely more than a conventional tire, but you could save money on your gasoline, so it could potentially be a wash.
The Green Seal, a nonprofit environmental organization, estimates that anywhere between 1.5% and 4.5% of all fuel used by cars and trucks in the United States could be saved if all replacement tires were low-resistance tires. Even though the savings does not seem like much, if the gas prices keep going up, every little bit will help, and we could help the environment by saving on gas as well.