Smart tyres help municipalities and bus companies to ensure efficient vehicle operation with lower costs during the mobility and energy transition.
Smart Moves in Urban Traffic: Entire Conti Urban Tyre Line Fitted with Sensors
The Conti Urban bus tyre, a proven specialist in mastering the demands of downtown traffic, is getting smart: Continental is factory-fitting the complete tyre family with the latest-generation sensors. The Conti Urban HA3, Conti UrbanScandinavia HA3+ and Conti UrbanScandinavia HD3 smart tyres will become available in August 2023. This makes Continental the first manufacturer to offer an entire family of tyres with sensors, allowing it to continue driving forward fleet digitalisation. Smart tyres additionally help municipalities and bus companies to ensure efficient vehicle operation with lower costs during the mobility and energy transition. A very high proportion of vehicles in the bus segment, in particular, are already electrified, and this share continues to grow. Public awareness of climate change and policy measures such as Germany’s ‘Deutschlandticket’ for nationwide travel on local public transport will only serve to reinforce the shift to more sustainable forms of downtown public transportation and away from ICE technology. “There is a steadily growing demand for Conti Urban tyres with sensor technology,” says Kalyan Yalamanchili, Head of Digital Solutions at Continental Tires EMEA.
Digital solutions provide a helping hand with growing demands
The bus industry is facing some major challenges. Passenger numbers are likely to rise due to various policy measures, the shortage of drivers is set to increase many times over, and there is growing pressure on companies to switch to alternative drive systems and digitalise their fleets. “We help our customers to successfully deal with these increasing demands using digital solutions such as the intelligent Conti Urban tyre,” says Yalamanchili. “Thanks to our App ContiConnect On-Site and our Conti Urban tyre family, customers are able to retrieve tyre data very easily and conveniently from a smartphone via Bluetooth.”
Reliable, efficient, sustainable: added value for bus fleets in urban traffic
The various ContiConnect digital solutions are a major boon for efficient fleet management. “We make sure that our tyres offer energy-efficient operation and a long life, as well as allowing predictive maintenance,” explains Yalamanchili. Smart tyres like the Conti Urban make tyre maintenance simple, convenient and effective. “By incorporating the new Conti Urban tyre into our ContiConnect 2.0 digital tyre management solution we are helping municipalities and local public transport operators alike to offer a reliable, efficient and eco-friendly system of public transport.” These are areas where bus companies can win over customers and secure their loyalty.
Operational reliability, longer tyre life and good utilisation of vehicle capacity are also a great help in lowering carbon emissions and increasing fleet sustainability. At the same time, digital tyre management makes it possible to minimise real-life fleet costs, in keeping with Continental’s holistic consultancy approach of Lowest Overall Driving Costs, or LODC for short. “Tyre sensors additionally provide the basis for capitalising on benefits such as remote fleet monitoring and predictive service planning in future,” adds Yalamanchili.
National and international Continental fleet customers have been using the intelligent Conti Urban tyre for many years now and are going to benefit greatly from its built-in sensor technology. Yalamanchili lays out the statistics: “Experience has shown that ContiConnect can reduce punctures by around 30 per cent for customers, achieve a fuel saving of two percent and increase usable mileage by some ten per cent.”
Investment in the future: digital tyre management brings benefits
The tyre sensors transmit live data on tyre temperature and predicted mileage via Bluetooth directly on the vehicle. Fleet management then accesses this data using a stationary Yard Reader station or telematics units. If any data anomalies are detected, immediate action can be taken. The intelligent Conti Urban tyres therefore help to reduce vehicle breakdowns and downtime, lower carbon emissions and cut costs. This creates the optimum conditions for carrying satisfied public transport users through cities aboard well-utilized buses in an environmentally sound manner and continuing to be a successful transport operator in future.
