Low rolling resistance tyre technology is proven overseas, however EECA was keen to investigate whether it could offer fuel saving on New Zealand road surfaces.
We found that low rolling resistance tyres can help you save fuel on New Zealand's chipseal road surfaces compared with standard tyres. However, the potential fuel savings may vary between different makes of low rolling resistance tyres.
We also found that there was no significant difference in wet emergency braking stopping performance, except on coarse chipseal surface at 70 km/h. This may indicate that a slight trade-off exists between reduced rolling resistance and wet emergency braking stopping distance on the tested coarse chipseal surface.
View the full report by Central Laboratories.
The video below shows the rolling resistance test at 70km/h on coarse chip seal. The cars were driven at a constant 70km/h, put in neutral then rolled to a complete stop. The low rolling resistance tyres travelled 974.9 metres compared with 733.1 metres for the conventional tyres.
