Hankook Tire Commercializes Korea's First Recycled PET Tire

SK Chemicals and Hyosung Advanced Materials Join Forces
Successful Commercialization of Electric Vehicle Exclusive 'Aion'

Hankook Tire & Technology (hereinafter Hankook Tire) has commercialized the first electric vehicle (EV) tire in Korea made using chemically recycled polyester (PET) material in collaboration with domestic companies.

On the 5th, Hankook Tire announced that it had commercialized the EV-specific tire "ION" in cooperation with SK Chemicals and Hyosung Advanced Materials. While there have been cases where chemically recycled PET-based tire cords were applied to concept tires or prototypes, this is the first time a finished product has been released to the market in Korea.

Hankook Tire has been conducting joint research and development with SK Chemicals and Hyosung Advanced Materials for over two years. This collaboration brought together chemical companies supplying raw materials, material companies processing them, and manufacturers producing finished products. As a result, they succeeded in developing the premium EV-specific tire "ION," which contains 45% sustainable materials including chemically recycled PET fiber tire cords, bio, circular, bio-circular polymers, and bio-based silica.

ION is the first tire in the global tire industry to be engraved with the ‘ISCC PLUS’ certification logo, an international certification for eco-friendly materials. It recently passed strict reliability verification by European automakers and obtained final approval for use, and will be installed as original equipment tires on new vehicles.

Goo Bon-hee, Vice President and Head of R&D Innovation at Hankook Tire, said, "Hankook Tire has continuously conducted research and development to use 100% sustainable materials in all tires by 2050. We will lead sustainable management in the global tire industry by expanding the application of eco-friendly materials centered on the EV-specific tire 'ION.'"

Lee Tae-jung, Executive Director of Tire Reinforcement PU at Hyosung Advanced Materials, said, "As social interest in sustainability is increasing recently, we will lead the eco-friendly product market through collaboration with domestic and international customers."

Kim Hyun-seok, Head of Business Development at SK Chemicals, said, "We will expand the use of recycled materials and strengthen cooperation with various industries so that similar collaboration cases can continue to emerge across diverse industrial sectors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.