Just as the Indian two-wheeler industry has been creating some world-class products over the past few years, the same can be said for the Indian tyres made for these motorcycles.
TVS Tyres has been a big player for years, both in domestic and export markets. However, in 2019, the company rebranded to TVS Eurogrip and that marked a big shift towards premiumisation. We spoke to company CTO Sivaramakrishnan Viswanathan to understand what went into achieving this rapid growth phase as well as what’s yet to come.
“Our ambition as an organisation is to be the two-wheeler tyre specialist and we mean that globally. We would like to be recognised as one of the best two-wheeler tyre manufacturers and for premium products," Viswanathan said.
He goes on to state that TVS Eurogrip will have to cater to a wide range of customer demands and that’s why it is now launching a series of global product lines with a new focus on performance. This includes the Bee Connect line of scooter tyres, the Climber, a 20/80 tyre (20 percent road focus and 80 percent off-road), which is aimed at serious off-road users and the new Roadhound sport touring tyre. The latter is TVS Eurogrip’s latest and most advanced sporting product yet, which is benchmarked against the likes of the Metzeler Roadtec and Pirelli Angel GT range of tyres.
The Roadhound is a four-compound tyre with a stability and longevity-related compound in the centre, two additional compounds towards the shoulders for more stiffness and cornering grip and a fourth base layer compound that is designed to improve comfort.
Coming up with such world-class products required a complete upheaval of the company’s internal structure. The R&D department was restructured into four different verticals to handle materials and compounds, product technologies, testing technologies and predictive technologies.
TVS Eurogrip also invested in bespoke testing equipment, modernising its test tracks and opening a new material sciences test lab. That lab has already led to 8 new material patents, especially in the space of sustainable materials. On top of this, there’s also a new R&D centre in Milan that brings in a global level of expertise as well as access to an international supplier base.
All of this has been completed in the last four years and Viswanathan tells us how the results are clear to see. “Before 2019, the R&D throughput used to be about 30-40 products a year, but that has now tripled to around 100-120 products a year.”
As for the future, Viswanathan tells us that the ultimate goal is that they should have a tyre for every bike on sale; and in the near term, the next premium tyre launch will be the Trailhound, which is aimed at ADV riders. This tyre will be available in 60/40 and 70/30 applications.
Perhaps more exciting is that the company is also working on a more sporty tyre for superbikes that will sit above the Roadhound and be available in sizes upto a 200 section rear tyre, which will debut in 2025.
TVS Eurogrip is already present in 80 countries worldwide and has evolved into a much larger tyre manufacturer than many would expect. We’ll be trying out the Roadhound soon, and going by how impressive their Protorq Extreme tyres proved to be, expectations are high here as well.
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