Foam-filled tires are not new. In fact, these kinds of tires have existed since tires were around.
In more recent times, standard tires have been filled with foam to give a softer ride or even to reduce the occurrence of flats. But in many modern applications, they are just used as an alternative to completely solid tires. Which is not what we are going to talk about here!
Telsa Foam Tires
Tesla tires are a little bit different. They are actually lined with foam to help reduce road noise. They are actually produced by Goodyear and they use an open-cell polyurethane foam inside the tire to help absorb some of the noise produced by things like cavitation when turning.
Sure, foam tires might also help marginally to reduce getting more flat tires, but that is not the main reason to have them. It’s all about noise reduction.
You can see inside a Tesla tire in the video below:
Why Have Foam In Tesla Tires?
Fundamentally, electric vehicles like Teslas have a lack of noise. Because there is no internal combustion engine, and a lot fewer moving components like gearboxes, there is going to be more noticeable tire noise.
Of course, Teslas are also far heavier than most gas powered vehicles, so that likely doesn’t help either. But it’s the quietness of EVs that is the problem.
Tesla has also worked on reducing wind noise through the glass as well as a number of other innovations that are quite new to the automotive industry. It is just the way things are now that cars are becoming stealthy vehicles roaming the streets. They also have an external speaker called the Boombox which amongst other things can alert pedestrians to a Tesla’s presence!
