Whenever we think of buying a vehicle, we always do thorough research about- fuel type, body type, engine, comfort, and colour. But we never pay attention to the colour of the tyres. For example, we see different types of vehicles with distinct colours, but we find every tyre in black. We are so used to seeing car tires in black colour that most of us have stopped wondering why tyres are always black.

We had you there, right? It may be interesting to note that this was not always true as the early tyres were white. The rubber itself has no colour, and the most frequent additive at that time was Zinc Oxide which is pure white. Zinc Oxide wears resistance to the rubber that is quite soft. But there were basically two reasons for the colour change of car tyres-

Durability was the main reason the colour changed to black. In the early 20th century, it was discovered that adding carbon black improves wear resistance immensely. Carbon gives tyres all kinds of necessary characteristics like heat-resistant, abrasion resistant, toughness, and more resilience, and makes tyres last longer. However, availability or enough quantity of carbon black was a challenge, and several tyre makers came up with tyres with white sidewall and black tread. Since the early 70s, all tyres have been black.

As a result of adding carbon black to the rubber compound for tread and sidewall, the tyre turns all black. Carbon black is black material produced by incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products, and it is also used as a black pigment for printing ink, toner, mascara, etc.

We hope this blog has intrigued you a bit more about the tyres. Whereas the colour remains black, the quality and performance differ. Though there are various kinds of tyres available in the market, if you are looking to replace your tyres, check out Bridgestone India. Bridgestone tyres avail services like new tyre fitting, tyre rotation, wheel balancing, and more. It also offers a range of tyres online, from performance tyres like Potenza to touring tyres such as Turanza.