New Delhi: The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it is supplying its GEOLANDAR X-CV tires as original equipment (OE) for Toyota Motor Corporation’s first-ever Grand Highlander Midsize SUV, which was launched in North America in June 2023. The Grand Highlander is being fitted with 255/65R18 111H and 255/55R20 107V size tires. The Grand Highlander is not available in Japan.
The GEOLANDAR X-CV tires being supplied as OE on the first-ever Grand Highlander represent a new standard in highway terrain tires focused on high-speed performance and manoeuvrability, combined with ride comfort worthy of the first-ever Grand Highlander thanks to a structure specially tuned to the characteristics of the vehicle. The tread pattern is optimally designed to provide excellent balance between high quietness and driving performance on wet and snowy roads, two things that are difficult to achieve simultaneously. In addition, the lightweight design reduces rolling resistance.
The tires being supplied as OE for the Grand Highlander were developed using Yokohama Rubber’s proprietary HAICoLab*, an AI-based development framework that aims to foster new discoveries and digital innovation by merging human inspiration and creativity with AI’s enormous data processing capability. To achieve the highly quiet ride, an optimal pitch sequence was obtained using evolutionary computation (genetic algorithms), one of the technologies incorporated in HAICoLab.
The innovative technologies applied in development of the tires are based on new knowledge obtained by collecting actual data and virtual data generated by simulations and then using AI’s predict, analyze and search functions.
Under Yokohama Rubber’s three-year (2021–2023) medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2023 (YX2023), the consumer tire business aims to maximize the sales ratios of high-value-added YOKOHAMA tires, namely the global flagship ADVAN brand, the GEOLANDAR brand of tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, and various winter tires.
The initiatives taken to achieve this goal include expanding the adoption of ADVAN and GEOLANDAR tires as original equipment on new cars, expanding product lineups, and strengthening its marketing of tires that respond to specific trends in each regional market. In particular, in 2023, the focus is on expanding sales of the GEOLANDAR brand and accelerating the launch of new products and the introduction of new sizes.
