Tyres that offer more sustainable and lower cost motoring
Bridgestone describes Enliten as a toolbox for reconciling sustainability-related characteristics with the best performance characteristics that a tyre can achieve, while considering the trend towards electromobility (Photo: Christian Marx / NRZ)
The increasing search for sustainable practices in mobility and the rising cost of living are two major themes informing this year’s WhatTyre Eco Tyre Award. In many ways, these two macrotrends appear to be in conflict, as manufacturers pass on the costs of producing their goods in more sustainable ways to the consumer. However, many of the best ecological methods in tyre production, such as reducing the materials needed to produce a tyre or sourcing materials from circular economy sources. For our 2025 guide to eco tyres, WhatTyre looks at some of the most sustainable products, but also some low-cost options that offer some other form of sustainability, whether this means the products’ performance, the product’s support for more sustainable motoring in the form of EV compatibility or high energy efficiency, or the manufacturer’s ability to comply with higher standards in ESG, an acronym that stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance.
Having expanded the scope of what might constitute a great tyre for an EV, reflecting market trends for original equipment fitments, many particularly efficient tyres are now available as ”EV-Ready” products – tyres that can be fitted to any car (see our Electric Car Tyre of the Year 2025 article for WhatTyre’s recommended specialist EV tyres). By configuring products to optimise range in EVs, these products are naturally fuel-efficient too, since the concepts of low rolling resistance, lighter weight and more aerodynamic sidewalls achieve the same ultimate goal. With this in mind, we have included another metric in judging what tyres might offer the best economical deal for motorists, while also demonstrating sustainable characteristics.
Legislative changes, demand from consumers, and the desire to boost sustainability in all aspects of the business mean that tyres have never been as eco-friendly. At the same time, there are also more ambitious global tyre manufacturers, with some of the best-established sub-premium brands committing to produce more sustainable, higher-quality products. Running a car is also an expensive business, whether that be due to high energy or fuel prices, the inflated prices in the used car market and the current lack of support for electrification available in the UK, but we believe this does not mean consumers want to participate in a race to the bottom on a safety-critical component such as tyres.
The good news is that there are many high-quality tyres available on the market at a relatively low purchase cost that will offer good performance characteristics, while also offering advanced technologies and sustainably certified manufacturing. In putting together WhatTyre’s recommendations for the best Eco Tyres available to buy now, we purposefully looked beyond tyres already featured in other categories, applying a very stringent criteria that ensures the tyres offer high quality, low price, and among the lowest environmental impact both in terms of performance and manufacturing.
This year, we have identified 10 tyres, largely that have not been included in other categories’ lists, although one particular product noted in the Summer Tyre of the Year list proved too appealing based on its performance to price ratio to exclude. After identifying the tyres that matched this criteria, we applied a new formula based on their Tyrescore, WhatTyre’s Eco Rating for each manufacturer, and the best price found online for the most popular 17” size to help rank them.
Continental UltraContact NXT (Photo: Continental)
WhatTyre Eco Tyre of the Year 2025
Even taking into consideration the relatively high purchase cost, the 2025 winner offers innovation in sustainability that in our opinion exceeds every other product with a broad enough range of sizes on the car tyre market. In addition to a tyre label that achieves the highest possible grades in both energy efficiency and wet grip, while also being one of the quietest tyres available, our winning tyre was found to have exceptionally short braking distances and balanced handling on wet surfaces, pronounced safe understeering behaviour with high cornering stability on dry asphalt, and low rolling resistance. It also offers market-leading sustainability credentials. It was so advanced that even a high purchase price could not prevent it from becoming WhatTyre’s 2025 Eco Tyre of the Year: the Continental UltraContact NXT.
With up to 65% renewable, recycled and mass balance certified materials, the Continental UltraContact NXT combines a high share of sustainable materials with maximum safety and performance. With the tyre’s 2023 launch, Continental was the first tyre maker to bring to market a volume production tyre with both a high share of sustainable materials and maximum EU tyre-label performance. All 19 available sizes carry the highest possible EU tyre label ratings for rolling resistance, wet braking, and exterior noise. Continental designed the UltraContact NXT for both electric and combustion engines. The range thus features the EV Compatible sidewall logo. According to Continental, the NXT line-up covers many popular vehicles, including the Kia Niro, VW ID.3, Mercedes-Benz EQA, Tesla Model 3, Audi Q4 E-TRON, Skoda Octavia, VW Golf 8 and Audi A3.
Four Highly Recommended products
The four products we highly recommend offer different balances between sustainability features and their purchase cost, with all four demonstrating compelling ratios of performance to price.
The Michelin Primacy 4+ summer tyre is not a tyre that can be acquired cheaply by any means, but its long life and high performance when worn means the total cost of ownership is comparatively low when taking into account the expected longevity of the tyre. The 4+ is also in the process of being superseded by the new Primacy 5, though independent tests have continued to recommend the 2022 launched 4+ in its absence from test tracks so far. The Primacy 4+ offers a tyre suitable for everything between family cars and SUVs for everyday journeys and long family trips. The tyre’s most notable performance features include improved braking performance in the wet when worn, increasing safety throughout the life of the tyres. From its launch, the Primacy 4+ offered market-leading performance in braking while worn as a result EverGrip technology. This combines two layers of rubber to offset the loss of tread depth and thus continue to remove water from the tread when worn. Michelin’s Primacy 4+ design was led by increasing safety from the first mile to the last, as well as delivering a long service life.
The Firestone Roadhawk 2, equipped with parent brand Bridgestone’s Enliten technology, proved too good an offer to exclude from this list, despite also featuring in our Summer Tyre recommendations – in fact, we give the tyre a Highly Recommended rating in this category, primarily because it is by our reckoning the most economical way to access a premium brand’s headline eco technology features. The summer touring tyre offers best-in-class wet grip and longer mileage and a greater than 10% reduction in rolling resistance, optimising fuel or energy consumption.
Bridgestone’s Enliten technology reduces material consumption and tyre weight. The tyre also uses Bridgestone’s NanoPro-Tech high-silica compound for greater wear resistance, ensuring the Roadhawk 2 Enliten is compatible with electric vehicles. The Firestone Roadhawk 2 Enliten targets motorists making every-day journeys, such as commuting, including the usual mix of heavy traffic, sudden braking and motorway speed all part of the daily mix of challenges on the roads. Bridgestone says the result is a tyre with significant performance upgrades from the original Firestone Roadhawk. The Firestone Roadhawk 2 Enliten launched with A-grade wet grip on the EU tyre label, achieving 20% longer mileage than the original Firestone Roadhawk. This is combined with a 12% rolling resistance reduction to optimise vehicle energy consumption.
If you want higher performance while also achieving a comparatively low purchase price considering its features, the Maxxis Victra Sport VS5 performance tyre could be for you. While the Maxxis tyre lags some way behind our other recommendations in terms of its sustainable performance, it offers outstanding value for money.
New materials and construction methods deliver improved strength and handling performance under high speed. A new Aramid/Nylon ply layer reduces tyre weight and improves rolling resistance and handling performance at high speed. The Victra Sport 5 also has a newly optimised sidewall construction to deliver extra strength without compromising on ride comfort. Its highly dispersed full silica compound delivers excellent grip in the wet and dry and improves fuel consumption.
Giti’s SynergyH2 tyres fitted on the VW ID. Buzz for Challenge4’s 2025 Guinness World Record attempt to visit the most countries in a zero-emission vehicle journey (Photo: Giti Tire)
A more sustainable tyre, especially at the higher 16-18” end of its size range, the GitiSynergyH2 offers eco-inspired engineering at a comparatively low purchase cost. Launched on the replacement market in April 2021 after winning original fitments deals with the VW Group, the tyre is suitable for compact and family cars, crossover vehicles and small SUVs.
The GitiSynergyH2 was designed and engineered at Giti Tire’s European Research & Development Centre in Hannover, with testing at the company’s MIRA facility in the UK as well as key locations in Germany and Spain. It is Giti’s first European tyre to utilise the manufacturer’s AdvanZtech technology platform. Giti’s globally-integrated, company-wide R&D system boosts the sharing and utilisation of specialised and advanced technology to create tyres which enhance the overall driving experience.
Finalists offer balance of sustainable performance to price worth considering
Our remaining finalists also offer some excellent sustainable motoring credentials at a relatively low cost – in some cases, this is achieved because a newer tyre is available in the same range, though with considerable numbers still available, WhatTyre would continue to recommend these alternatives as a way for motorists to economise on purchase costs, while still obtaining independently certified performance. This is true of the perennially listed Falken Ziex ZE310 Ecorun, which remains available alongside the new, more performance oriented ZE320. The tyre offers excellent traction and grip on wet and dry roads, with enhanced wear performance, enhanced resistance against aquaplaning, and shorter braking distances. Falken also improved noise reduction for the Ecorun version of the ZE310.
The launch of the BFGoodrich Advantage range in 2020 marked the American brand’s 150th anniversary. Offering a wide range of fitments for saloons and hatchbacks, the Advantage was developed with an emphasis on performance characteristics such as wet and dry grip, road holding and handling, along with low rolling resistance and ride comfort. The Advantage offers significantly superior performance in comparison with their previous-generation equivalents after the Groupe Michelin brand put extensive work into the tread and the design of their self-locking sipes which minimise tread-block movement. These innovations combine to shorten braking distances for enhanced safety, especially on wet roads. According to internal studies performed by the Michelin Group using the previous-generation G-Grip as comparison, the BFGoodrich Advantage respectively delivered 2.4 and 1.5 metre shorter braking distances on wet (80km/h to 20km/h) and dry (100km/h to 0km/h) roads.
The Dunlop Sport Bluresponse is likely to be the tyre that has shown the most market longevity among all the tyre’s listed in our 2025 guide. The performance car tyre focused on efficiency and safety from its launch, and has had a long and illustrious history, including becoming one of the first tyres to gain a top AA rating in fuel efficiency and wet grip on the European tyre label. The tyre continues to impress in independent comparative tests.
Linglong Sport Master (Image: Linglong)
Linglong is a newly featured brand in our list, but with an advanced factory now online in Serbia, the Chinese manufacturer is able to achieve new levels of production quality and sustainability credentials. Its European focused car tyres carry the “Master” branding, led by the flagship performance Linglong SportMaster. The tyre represents a big leap forward for the manufacturer in terms of wet grip, with a 17% improvement over its previous ultra-high performance products snaring it an A grade on the tyre label, and helping it to an 11th-place finish in the Auto Bild Summer Tyre Test out of 52 tested tyres. Linglong says its new summer UHP tyre inherits the genes of its D1 racing tyres. This sporting pedigree accounts for around 20% of the tyre’s performance – its sporty handling – with the other 80% tuned for regular driving performance.
The Sport Master carries several new Linglong technologies. The whole series of products are equipped with Linglong “water film destruction unit technology” and its third-generation high handling and wet skid resistance resin formula. The tread design has wide grooves to ensure the tyre can quickly cut through the surface layer of water during braking, draining accumulated water from the pattern and improving the traction of the tyre to ensure safe driving on rainy days. The Sport Master series is also equipped with “steady-state pressure-balanced pattern contour” design technology, which increases the actual ground contact area of the tyre by 3%. This improves the dry braking and handling performance of the tyre. It also improves the regularity of wear, extending the potential life of the tyre. Linglong adds that the tyre uses a higher-strength carcass framework material, which helps to maintain the tyre’s performance.
Additionally, Linglong has added a version of the tyre tweaked for new energy vehicles, with eight initial Sport Master sizes designated the ‘e’ suffix.
Finally, the Yokohama Bluearth-XT AE61 targets compact and crossover SUVs. Its tread pattern is asymmetrical, with high rigidity from the shoulder to the centre rib that contributes to handling performance and resistance to uneven wear. In addition, four straight grooves combined with inside narrow grooves aid the tyre’s wet-grip performance. Tyre-road noise is suppressed with non-penetrating grooves that suppress air-pumping noise and a five-pitch tread pattern variation. The tyre’s compound is a nano-blend rubber that combines silica and polymer to enhance wet grip performance and fuel efficiency.
