Hankook Tire & Technology (161390.KS) is expanding tire supply to Apollo Go, the driverless robotaxi platform operated by China's Baidu.
The company said on the 22nd that it will widen supply of its iON ST AS, a high-mileage tire designed exclusively for electric vehicles, from four cities to 10. The cities are Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Dongguan, Nanchang and Sanya.
Hankook Tire signed a strategic partnership with Baidu in March last year and began supplying the iON ST AS to Level 4 autonomous vehicles in Wuhan and Shenzhen, accumulating operating data. The tire won recognition for performance tuned to the demands of autonomous driving, including frequent starts and stops and long hours of operation, leading to a phased expansion into other regions.
The iON ST AS features an EV-specific profile design and a "Produrable Compound" that supports high mileage. It balances low rolling resistance, strong wear resistance and stable grip, cutting a vehicle's energy use while improving driving efficiency and tire life.
The tire also delivers stable performance during the frequent acceleration, deceleration, cornering and braking typical of city driving. An optimized tread pattern and tire structure reduce noise and vibration while driving.
The two companies also agreed to extend their partnership beyond product supply into a framework linking vehicles, tires, roads and the cloud. They plan to connect driving data from the iON ST AS with Apollo Go's real-time tire pressure monitoring and wear alert systems, building an intelligent management system covering the full tire life cycle and improving the operating efficiency and stability of autonomous vehicles.
Hankook Tire has been steadily broadening the iON lineup's applications from standard electric passenger cars to commercial fleet vehicles and autonomous vehicles. "We will continue to advance the performance of iON products based on our global research and development capabilities," a Hankook Tire official said. "We will strengthen our technological competitiveness in the global autonomous driving industry and the future smart mobility market."