Tires made from orange peel?

Don't throw those orange peels away so soon. There is money to be made in them, according to Yokohama that is. Yokohama Tire Corp have came out with a way of extracting oil from orange peel as a substitute to petroleum in manufacturing tires. dB Super E-spec is the world's first tire that is made using orange peel oil extract. According to Yokohama, nearly 20 gallons of petroleum go into a set of tires, meaning that about 5 million barrels of oil annually are consumed by a 10 million-vehicle market. By infusing oil extracted from orange peels into natural rubber, Yokohama has cut the amount of petroleum in its dB Super E-spec tires by 80 percent.


The problem with most eco / optimised for high fuel economy tires is that they rely on hard compounds, which have less grip under normal driving conditions until they heat up at higher speeds. With this new orange oil extract infused with natural rubber compound, the properties of orange oil will heat up faster, delivering better grip.

Yokohama did not provide any direct comparisons but did mention that the orange tire also has 22 percent lower rolling resistance than the standard tire on a Toyota Prius, meaning better fuel economy. Also, it weighs 2 pounds less than most original-equipment tires.

The dB Super E-spec is currently only available in USA while European introduction is in the pipeline. Sizes are tailored to suit most hybrid vehicles, 185/65R15 88H, 195/65R15 91H, 195/55R16 86V and 215/60R16 95V for the Prius, Civic Hybrid and GX (CNG bi-fuel), Camry and Accord hybrid, as well as Nissan Versa (Tiida / Latio) and VW Golf.


And no, the tire doesn't give out orange smoke during burn outs / drifting like Kumho Ecsta MX-C that gives out red smokes. And yes the tire is black and no it doesn't smell of orange.

The dB Super E-spec 's recommended retail price is around $105 though you might get better rates from online retailers like tirerack.com. But as mentioned, it is only available in America.