It's too late in the year to be an April Fools' joke, so it's presumably the real deal: Dandelions are being studied as a viable, ecologically sustainable resource in the manufacture of tyres.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME), supported by Continental Tyres, is conducting the study, based on the potential the plant offers as a cleaner alternative to traditional crops.
According to press material issued by Continental, the roots of the dandelion are "a commercially viable substitute for natural latex from rainforest plantations."
Since the flowering plant grows in places that wouldn't sustain food crops, it can be planted close to the factories where tyres are made, reducing shipping costs and reducing the CO2 emissions associated with shipping – all the while taking CO2 out of the atmosphere without occupying arable land that could be better used for food production.
"While the notion of obtaining latex from dandelions has been around for a long time, we have been working on this very intensively for the past four years, and two and a half years ago we entered into a joint development project with the Fraunhofer Institute with the aim of cultivating suitable plants," said David O'Donnell, Head of Global Research and Development for Passenger Car and Light Truck Tyres at Continental.
"The outcome is a dandelion-based rubber that is comparable in quality and functionality with the product of the rubber tree."
By reducing the 'monoculture' of rubber trees in plantations around the world, biodiversity is enhanced in those areas, and the manufacturer isn't held to ransom by "volatile prices" of rubber due to currency exchange rate fluctuations or other economic factors. Between 10 and 30 per cent of the 'rubber' in a tyre is actually rubber, so cost savings for the manufacturer could be significant.
"While we don't want to set a date, the main obstacles have already been overcome – we think that in three or four years, a substantial number of our initial 'dandelion tyres' will be involved in road testing," O'Donnell remarked.
The dandelion initiative is one element of a broad-based strategy to clean up Continental's environmental act. 'Targeted' recycling yields a volume of 4000 tonnes at year at the tyre maker's plant, comprising 2400 tonnes of rubber and 1600 tonnes of filler materials – carbon black and silica.
And in between production and recycling Continental has developed a tyre specifically for hybrid-drive vehicles. Its rolling resistance is 30 per cent lower than a conventional tyre, but the manufacturer claims braking in the wet is unaffected.