Apollo Tyres inaugurates new tyre testing facility in Chennai

Leading tyre manufacturer Apollo Tyres has inaugurated its new Advanced Tyre Testing facility in India, located at the company’s Global R&D centre in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The new facility promises to improve the product development cycle for passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, including electric vehicles. The company says its new facility will reduce the turnaround time for its future range of products.

Speaking at the inauguration, Daniele Lorenzetti, Chief Technology Officer, Apollo Tyres, said, “We strongly focus on continuous improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of product development, and this new facility will further augment our testing capabilities for future vehicle models. We will be able to fine tune the performance of our products by simulating closely to the real-world conditions using this facility. This is aligned with Apollo Tyres’ 2026 vision, of which technology is a key pillar."

Apollo’s new Advanced Test facility gets a custom-designed Flat-trac machine and Anechoic Chamber, which will help characterise the performance of tyres’ dynamics and acoustics. This will help in the faster product development of tyres for manufacturers as well as replacement markets. The new test facility will contribute heavily to the development of tyres for premium passenger vehicles, EVs as well as premium motorcycles, the company said in a statement.

The Flat-trac machine helps set the handling parameters and measuring force & moment (F&M) for tyres, as per the vehicle’s dynamics. The machine has been custom designed to simulate tyre needs of future vehicles, factoring in EVs as well as autonomous vehicles. The Flat-trac machine can replicate real-life situations including evasive manoeuvres of vehicles like high slip angles and high torque ramp-up. It also simulates severe inclinations for two-wheelers.

Apollo recently introduced the Tramplr range of dual-purpose tyres for motorcycles between 150-500 cc

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Apollo recently introduced the Tramplr range of dual-purpose tyres for motorcycles between 150-500 cc

There’s also the High-Speed Uniformity machine combined with Anechoic Chamber, which helps simulate Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) levels on tyres. These are particularly critical on EVs and premium vehicles, and the anechoic chamber combines the study of mechanical and acoustic comfort parameters by building different road profiles for tyres under test.

Apollo says its new test facility will help reduce the expensive and time-consuming test at different tracks around the world. The manufacturer retails a range of tyres for cars, SUVs and two-wheelers alike. It also retails the premium Vredestein brand of high-performance tyres for premium vehicles. More recently, Apollo introduced the new Tramplr range of tyres for 150-500 cc for motorcycles in the country.