JLR is putting a lot of effort into making its operations and vehicles greener as part of its long-term Reimagine plan. One part of a vehicle that always requires a heavier environmental toll is tires, which require rubber made from rubber trees. A new partnership with Pirelli will lead to a first-in-the-industry collaboration, which will see future JLR vehicles using sustainably sourced, FSC-certified natural rubber in their tires.
The partnership has developed as part of the development process for the Range Rover Electric, the first EV Land Rover ever. Set to launch in 2025, it will also be the first JLR vehicle to feature the Pirelli sustainable tires. It's also the start of a plan to move all Pirelli tires installed on JLR vehicles to a sustainable model. (Various models have tires from different manufacturers. For instance, the high-performance tires on the Range Rover Sport SV are made by Michelin, and the knobbier off-road tires offered on Defenders are a Goodyear product.)
The new tires will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit certifying sustainable timber-use products. The logo -- a checkmark fused into a tree -- is often seen on lumber, but rubber comes from the latex extracted from the rubber tree, so these new tires also fall under the FSC's umbrella. Rubber trees, and the demand for their product, are a massive source of deforestation, particularly in the Amazon Rainforest.
Pirelli and JLR are also collaborating on increasing the amount of sustainable and recycled content in their tires, a process that has already begun. These green moves show that making a vehicle more environmentally friendly and sustainable goes far beyond how it is propelled. As part of the partnership, the plan is to manufacture 250,000 FSC-certified tires a year, moving towards replacing all Pirelli tires on JLR vehicles with FSC-certified ones.
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