Press Release

Hyogo, Japan – October 2, 2025 – Toyo Tire Corporation (Headquarters: Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture; President & CEO: Takashi Shimizu; hereinafter, “Toyo Tire”) hereby announces that it has created a new framework to further develop the proprietary fundamental technologies for tire design used in its product development to date. At the center of this framework, Toyo Tire has positioned the areas of technology it considers essential for the type of next-generation tire manufacturing it aspires to. It will develop the technologies in these areas through innovation and integration.

Having named its new technological framework THiiiNK (pronounced “think”), Toyo Tire will seek to further refine these core technologies with a view to supplying appealing products that employ them more widely.

■ Demand for greater precision and speed
Currently, innovation in next-generation mobility technologies is progressing at an accelerating pace, with developments including increasingly widespread use of electric vehicles as well as advances in autonomous driving technology and SDV*1 strategies. Accordingly, a higher level of performance is now required of tires. In addition to demand for further improvements in terms of quietness, lower rolling resistance, and tire wear resistance, there is also demand for precise, speedy development of products that meet the new requirements for capabilities such as sensor integration and real-time data linkage.
^{*1.Software Defined Vehicle: A vehicle whose capabilities in terms of mobility can be kept up-to-date through software updates.}

■ Establishment of the new THiiiNK technological framework
Of the various technologies Toyo Tire has cultivated over many years, those in the three areas of materials, simulation, and design are the core technologies that will be central to the type of next-generation tire manufacturing Toyo Tire aspires to. The new THiiiNK technological framework has organized these core technologies into an integrated system, and Toyo Tire intends to apply the framework to all products it develops going forward.
 

Conceptual image of the new THiiiNK technological framework developed by Toyo Tire

Nano Balance Technology: Materials technology to cater to next-generation lifestyles
When developing rubber materials, Toyo Tire leverages its proprietary fundamental technology called Nano Balance Technology, which allows materials to be designed at the nanoscale. The technology provides integration across the four areas of observation, prediction, material design, and production control. It facilitates research, simulation, function creation, and precision control of rubber materials at the nano (molecular) level, enabling the ideal material design.

When developing fuel-efficient tires for passenger vehicles, Toyo Tire achieves a fine balance between two contradictory types of performance: reduced rolling resistance (fuel-efficiency performance) and increased braking capability (wet grip performance). Thus, it supplies the market with a lineup of products that offer higher added value by combining environmental performance with safety performance. Furthermore, Toyo Tire contributes to higher fuel efficiency and reduced environmental load in tires for trucks and buses by leveraging its material design technology.

T-MODE: Simulation technology that enables the high performance demanded by customers
In 1987, Toyo Tire was the first Japanese tire manufacturer to employ a supercomputer and since then it has continuously updated to the latest models. This use of supercomputers is something it has pursued independently and proactively since positioning simulation technology as central to assisting with design during tire development. In 2000, Toyo Tire announced its design technology known as T-mode, which integrated driving simulations and tire simulations. Then, in 2019, it integrated the existing fundamental design technology employing CAE*2 with AI technology, thereby dramatically improving design precision and speed to develop the new T-MODE. This enabled the establishment of development capability that can handle the complex and highly advanced performance requirements for next-generation mobility.
^{*2.Computer Aided Engineering: A technology for creating a virtual model on a computer at the product design and development stage to simulate and analyze physical phenomena.}

Tread Pattern Design Method: Design technology that simultaneously realizes functionality and aesthetics
Toyo Tire has established a strong presence in the North American market by developing, manufacturing, and selling tire products that combine performance with aggressive designs. Since 2004, when Toyo Tire established its first overseas production base, Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc., in the US state of Georgia, it has developed the two Toyo Tire and Nitto brands, catering to a wide variety of demand ranging from tires for light trucks to tires for other trucks and buses.

Toyo Tire’s flagship OPEN COUNTRY series of tires for SUVs is particularly highly regarded in the North American market, and has also been well received in the Japanese market, where it was launched in 2016. Design technology of this kind is the source of Toyo Tire’s competitive strength and contributes significantly to the enhancement of brand value.

THiiiNK will serve as a roadmap to guide Toyo Tire as it drives value creation by continuing to further refine and advance technologies in the three areas positioned as its core technological areas for the future. Toyo Tire will simultaneously develop each of these technologies and integrate all three to achieve design process efficiency and optimization along with maximization of product value.

Currently, professor Kikuo Fujita, associate professor Kentaro Yaji, and associate professor Yutaka Nomaguchi of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Engineering are conducting joint research with professor Shintaro Yamasaki of Waseda University’s Graduate School of Information, Production, and Systems on data-driven optimization computation for designing tread patterns that simultaneously realize functionality and aesthetics. The most distinctive aspect of this research is that it visualizes an entire array of potential tread patterns for which functionality and aesthetics have been comprehensively evaluated, creating a framework within which the designer can make an overall decision. Thus, Toyo Tire is further improving design quality and increasing development speed by visualizing design know-how accumulated to date in the form of data.