The collaboration started with Ford engineers meeting with Pirelli engineers to explain their targets for the tires — including wet performance, dry performance, longitudinal and lateral performance and wear, Iorio said.
During the Mach-E GT’s gestation, “we got submissions from Pirelli. They’ll say, here’s our first set of tires and they’ll share their data. It was about managing the torque, hitting the range and being very efficient,” Iorio told Automotive News.
“The GT is all-out performance. The full torque comes on in less than 500 milliseconds, so it comes on incredibly quick and it is a very high number. We worked very closely with Pirelli to ensure the tires will grip. What we call the longitudinal mew has to be tuned to that 0 to 60 time,” he said.
Huge electric trucks, such as the GMC Hummer and Rivian’s battery-powered delivery van for Amazon, are even tougher tests for tire companies.
“They present a bigger challenge because of the added weight of the battery pack,” said Goodyear’s Rohweder. “We are seeing higher and higher load indexes requested by [vehicle] manufacturers. They want the same functionality” as internal combustion engine vehicles. The tires also have to be super-strong to stay on the rim while taking the punishment of driving over rocks and stumps and through deep, jagged ruts.
“While EVs do present some unique differences over ICE vehicles, specifically the way torque comes on and the stress on tires, the overall development and testing for tires on any of our vehicles is very similar,” said David Cowger, General Motors’ engineering and technical leader for tires. “We work closely with our tire suppliers during the development process on the various performance metrics that need to be achieved, as well as the vehicle metrics itself. As you may have noticed on the GMC Hummer EV, we have an eight-lug wheel pattern, something that you would also see on our HD trucks which make a lot of torque.”
