Bridgestone, Enlighten Tire Support "2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge"
Jun 16, 2025
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The Enlighten tires supplied by Bridgestone to the "2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" are the first to apply new recycled materials developed in collaboration with partners, and the ratio of recycled and renewable materials in tires is more than 65%.The new Enlighten tires will be supplied by Bridgestone to 33 teams participating in 17 countries and regions around the world.
The "Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" is the world's best solar car racing competition from August 24 to 31. In the biennial competition, participants face the challenge of crossing the Australian continent 3,000 kilometers using only solar energy.Bridgestone has been participating since 2013 as the title sponsor of the competition.The competition shows Bridgestone's efforts to foster engineers who will accelerate next-generation mobility innovation, including electric vehicles, and lead future mobility.
At the "2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge," Bridgestone will supply tires with ENLITEN technology that guarantees the performance needed for solar vehicles while further improving sustainability.Bridgestone first applied recovered carbon black and steel, recycled materials developed and produced through joint development focused on the development of recycling technology that "renews" tires as raw materials.Bridgestone is further developing sustainability efforts and initiatives across the value chain, such as reducing tire usage and introducing low-carbon tire delivery to achieve a circular economy and carbon neutrality.
Bridgestone intends to use the "Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" as a "moving laboratory" to further hone and develop its technology, thereby strengthening sustainable global motorsport activities.At the same time, Bridgestone is committed to accelerating innovation for future mobility by pushing the envelope and challenging for the best with participating teams that share their enthusiasm for racing.
Bridgestone's sustainability efforts and initiatives for the "2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" are as follows.
1. Apply new recycled materials jointly developed with partners to achieve a ratio of more than 65% of recycled and renewable materials
Combined with ENEOS to develop carbon black recovered by precision pyrolysis of waste tires using Bridgestone's test unit
Bridgestone has been promoting chemical recycling of waste tires since 2022 to contribute to the realization of the circular economy. In 2023, it introduced a test unit at Bridgestone Innovation Park in Kodaira City, Tokyo, and worked with ENEOS to further develop technology to obtain recovered carbon black through precise thermal decomposition of waste tires.Bridgestone applied carbon black recovered from its own test unit for the first time to the "2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" tires.
Recycled steel jointly developed with Nippon Steel and Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd
Bridgestone has been working with Nippon Steel and Sanyo Special Steel since 2022 to promote recycling of waste tires in accordance with the common vision of a circular economy.For the first time in the "Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" tire, bead wire, a tire reinforcement made from recycled steel obtained from waste tires collected from the Bridgestone Tire Recycling Center in Osaka, was applied.Recycled steel is extracted from waste tires in an electric furnace of Sanyo Special Steel and then rolled and heat treated at a Nippon Steel plant to make bead wires.
2. Evolution of New Premium Enlighten Technology
Tires used in the "2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" inherit the previous contest ENLITEN technology to achieve a high level of environmental performance and tire performance.Through joint development with partners, Bridgestone has improved environmental performance that contributes to sustainability by applying the new aramid material "Twaron" using the aforementioned recycled resources and the circulating material of Teijin aramid.At the same time, the tires ensure low rotational resistance, durability, lightweight structure, and punk resistance needed for solar cars, maximizing performance and supporting safe and stable long-distance driving of approximately 3,000 km under the harsh conditions of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.
3.Tire transportation to low-carbon emission logistics transportation
Bridgestone is working with DHL to utilize the GoGreen Plus solution to transport the tires of the 'Bridgestone World Solar Challenge'.By using sustainable marine fuels, low-carbon transport is realized by reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 85% over the entire well-to-wake cycle of fuel production, transportation, storage, and ship use.
2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge Overview
1. Schedule: August 24-31, 2025
2. Host Country: Australia (Departure: Darwin-Arrival: Adelaide)
3. Host: South Australian Motor Sports Council (SAMSB)
4. Competition class (The number of participating teams is as of June 4, 2025):
Challenger Class
-A class whose challenge is to be the leader among cars designed around speed.The car must be equipped with at least three wheels and one driver must be on board.
-Bridgestone provides tires to 25 out of 29 participating teams
Cruiser Class
-A class that tests the energy efficiency and practicality of a car.At least three wheels must be mounted, and at least one driver and one passenger must be able to ride.
-Bridgestone provides tires to all 8 teams participating in the class
Explorer Class
-A class in which a vehicle that does not meet the requirements required to participate in a Challenger class or Cruiser class can participate.For example, cars can participate in accordance with the regulations of the previous competition.
The "Bridgestone World Solar Challenge" shows three values of "energy," "ecological ecology," and "emotional emotion" among Bridgestone E8 commitments, which are corporate values that the Bridgestone Group seeks to implement sustainability.It describes Bridgestone Group's efforts to realize a carbon-neutral mobility society (energy energy), the development of sustainable tire technologies and solutions (ecology) that preserve the environment for future generations, and the spread of passion and joy to the mobility world (emotional Emotion).
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
