The transition to electric vehicles is one of the most significant changes in the UK automotive landscape of the past decade, driven by government policy, manufacturer investment, and consumer adoption. Much of the public debate around EVs focuses on battery technology, charging infrastructure, and the upstream carbon footprint of battery production. The end-of-life implications of EV tyres receive far less attention, but they are a material consideration for the tyre recycling industry.
EVs are heavier than equivalent internal combustion engine vehicles due to the weight of the battery pack. A typical mid-range battery electric vehicle weighs 200 to 400 kg more than its combustion engine equivalent. This additional weight is transmitted through the tyres to the road surface, increasing the mechanical load on the tyre during acceleration, cornering, and braking. EVs also have instant torque delivery, which subjects tyres to higher initial traction forces than combustion engine vehicles deliver.
The consequence is faster tyre wear. Studies and real-world data consistently show EV tyres wearing significantly faster than equivalent tyres on combustion engine vehicles, with some estimates suggesting 20 to 50 percent higher wear rates depending on vehicle type, driving behaviour, and tyre specification. Faster wear means more frequent tyre replacement, which means more used tyres entering the waste stream per EV on the road compared to each equivalent combustion engine vehicle.
As EV penetration increases toward the UK government’s target of all new car sales being zero-emission by 2035, the composition and volume of the used tyre stream will change in ways that tyre recyclers need to plan for now. Gradeall International monitors these developments as a manufacturer of tyre processing equipment used across the UK and in over 100 countries. The tyre recycling equipment range from Gradeall’s Dungannon, Northern Ireland facility processes tyres of all types, and understanding how EV tyre characteristics affect processing is part of designing and specifying equipment for the tyre recycling operations of the next decade.
EV-specific tyre design differs from conventional tyre design in several ways driven by the vehicle’s characteristics:
Load rating. To support the increased vehicle weight, EV tyres are built with higher load ratings than conventional tyres of the same size. The tyre’s structural specification is heavier, with stronger carcass construction and different steel belt arrangements. This heavier construction means EV tyres contain more material by weight than conventional tyres of the same footprint.
Rolling resistance specification. EV range is directly affected by rolling resistance, so EV tyres are specified for very low rolling resistance, typically using different compound formulations and tread pattern geometries than performance-focused combustion engine tyres. Low rolling resistance compound formulations may use different chemical profiles than conventional compounds, potentially affecting the properties of the crumb rubber produced from recycled EV tyres.
Noise reduction. EV drivetrain noise is much lower than combustion engine noise, so road and tyre noise becomes perceptible to EV occupants at speeds where it would have been masked by engine noise in a conventional vehicle. EV tyres are typically designed with noise-reducing foam inserts or specialist tread patterns. Foam-lined tyres present a specific recycling challenge: the acoustic foam adhered to the inner surface of the tyre is not rubber and needs to be separated before standard tyre processing.
Wear rate. As noted above, EV tyres wear faster than equivalent combustion engine vehicle tyres. The high torque delivery of electric motors creates higher traction demands at the tyre-road interface, particularly under acceleration. This faster wear produces tyre waste more frequently from each EV on the road.
The volume implication of faster EV tyre wear, compounded by growing EV fleet penetration, is straightforward to project but significant in its scale.
If an EV requires tyre replacement 30 percent more frequently than an equivalent combustion engine vehicle, then a fleet of one million EVs generates the tyre waste equivalent of 1.3 million combustion engine vehicles. As the UK fleet transitions toward EVs over the next decade, the total used tyre volume generated per year may increase even as total vehicle kilometres remain stable, because each EV produces more tyre waste per kilometre driven.
For tyre recycling businesses, this is a demand driver: more used tyres entering the collection system means more feedstock for processing operations. The challenge is ensuring that collection infrastructure and processing capacity scale proportionally, and that the specific characteristics of EV tyres are accommodated in processing equipment and procedures.
The acoustic foam insert found in many EV tyres (and increasingly in some premium combustion engine vehicle tyres) is the most immediate practical processing challenge for tyre recyclers. The foam is typically a strip of polyurethane foam adhered to the inner surface of the tyre, designed to absorb air column noise inside the tyre cavity.
When a foam-lined tyre enters a standard tyre baler or shredder, the foam is processed along with the rubber. In baling, the foam is incorporated into the bale without significant consequence for PAS 108 compliance (the foam is a minor fraction of the bale mass). In shredding, the foam is liberated during the granulation process and accumulates in the aspiration (fibre separation) stage, where it can create handling challenges because its density and size behaviour in the aspiration airflow differs from textile fibre.
For shredding operations receiving significant volumes of foam-lined tyres, the aspiration system may need to be adjusted or the foam managed as a separate stream. For baling operations, the foam content is unlikely to significantly affect bale specification, but processors should monitor any changes in bale properties as foam-lined tyre volumes increase.
The foam itself, polyurethane foam from tyre acoustic liners, has no established significant commercial market as a recycling output and is typically treated as a residual waste fraction in tyre processing.
The increased weight and different construction of EV tyres has implications for tyre processing equipment design and specification:
Baling: Heavier EV tyres produce heavier bales for a given number of tyres per bale. If EV tyres are on average 10 to 15 percent heavier than equivalent conventional car tyres, a PAS 108 bale produced predominantly from EV tyres will be heavier than a bale from conventional car tyres. This may improve the structural properties of the bale for some civil engineering applications and affects transport logistics (fewer bales per vehicle load for the same tonne payload).
Shredding: Heavier, more heavily constructed EV tyres may present higher resistance to primary shredding. Shredder blade wear may be influenced by the different steel belt specifications in EV tyres. Operators should monitor blade wear rates as EV tyre volumes increase in their feedstock mix.
Sidewall cutting: EV tyres’ heavier construction may affect sidewall cutting equipment settings. The truck tyre sidewall cutter and car tyre sidewall cutter from Gradeall are designed for robust use across different tyre constructions; operators should confirm cutting performance as EV tyre volumes increase.
Tyre recycling businesses planning capacity investment over the next five to ten years should factor EV tyre volume growth into their planning assumptions. The UK’s 2035 zero-emission new car sales target means that by the mid-2030s, a substantial proportion of new tyre fitments will be on EVs. The resulting used tyre stream will be progressively more EV-dominated over the following years.
Planning implications: processing capacity should be specified for growing volumes, not just current volumes; equipment specifications should be confirmed as suitable for heavier, differently constructed EV tyres; foam-lined tyre handling procedures should be developed before foam-lined volumes become significant; and collection contracts should anticipate changing tyre type composition.
“EV tyres are a growing and important consideration for the tyre recycling industry, and businesses that start planning now will be better positioned than those that wait until EV tyres are dominant in their collection stream,” says Conor Murphy, Director of Gradeall International. “Our equipment is robust enough to handle EV tyre specifications, and we work with customers to understand how the changing tyre mix affects their processing operations and equipment needs.”
Contact Gradeall International for tyre processing equipment specification that accounts for EV tyre characteristics and growing EV fleet volumes.
EV tyres are broadly as suitable for PAS 108 baling as conventional car tyres. Their heavier construction means bales from predominantly EV tyre feedstock may be heavier per bale, which affects transport logistics. The structural properties of EV tyre bales are likely to be comparable or slightly improved relative to conventional tyre bales due to the heavier tyre construction. Confirm specific requirements with the civil engineering project specifier.
Foam-lined tyres can be baled alongside conventional tyres without significant effect on PAS 108 bale compliance; the foam is a minor fraction of the bale mass. Separating foam-lined tyres for shredding operations may be useful to manage aspiration system performance if foam-lined volumes are significant. In practice, most baling operations will find foam-lined tyres manageable in their normal baling process.
EV sales in the UK have grown significantly each year through the early 2020s. The lag between EV sales and used EV tyres entering the recycling stream (typically one to three years from sale to first tyre replacement) means the EV tyre fraction of the recycling stream is still modest but growing. By the late 2020s, EV tyres will be a materially significant and growing fraction of the UK used tyre collection stream.
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