For the month of September, 2026:

Just when I thought there was nothing new for September, Tire Business, an industry newspaper, published an article about the new California tire regulations with lots of soundbites from various people within the industry.

One of those was from Roy Littlefield of the TIA (Tire Industry Association), a tire dealer organization. He said that the TIA had successfully persuaded the California Energy Commission (CEC) from requiring tire dealers to display the ratings as part of their in-showroom display. I had wondered what had happened to that! That seemed like a lot of work, but I could see the benefit.

Jay Spears from Continental Tire said the onus was not on the manufacturers, but on the dealers, to be sure they were selling only compliant tires. I’m not sure I agree with that, but it is clear that all the tire manufacturers have to do is publish the rolling resistance values in the database that is being set up. It used to be called TRRED – Tire Rolling Resistance Efficiency Database – but I haven’t heard it referred to as that since 2023.

The article indicated that some are considering petitioning the California legislature to get relief. Personally, I think that is the right approach. The biggest problem appears to be the 2033 goal. It’s quite aggressive and would ban a lot of tires – at least that is what the situation appears to be from the perspective of September, 2026!

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News outlets have been reporting that Continental was adding 650 new tire sizes to their UHP tire line-up. The way this was worded implied that there were 650 new “sizes”, but a careful look at the wording in the original announcement makes it clear that they are adding 650 SKU’s.

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