HIRATSUKA, Japan — Toyota Motor Corp. has selected Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.'s Geolandar X-CV tires as an original equipment (OE) fitment on its Grand Highlander midsize SUV, which launched in North America earlier this summer.
The eight-passenger Grand Highlander — which features full-width third-row seating or 97.5 cubic feet of cargo space with the seats stowed — is positioned between the standard Highlander and larger Sequoia SUV.
Designed and built in the U.S., the Grand Highlander's standard powerplant is a 2.4-liter turbocharged inline 4-cylinder engine. Two optional hybrid powertrains are also available — one tuned for fuel economy and capable of delivering an estimated 34 mpg combined, the other tuned for power and capable of delivering up to 362 hp and towing up to 5,000 pounds.
The Grand Highlander's tire fitments are either 255/65R18 111H or 255/55R20 107V sizes, depending on trim level.
Yokohama said the Geolandar X-CV tires it's supplying to Toyota were tuned to the vehicle's handling characteristics. As such they represent a "new standard" in highway terrain tires, Yokohama claims, focused on high-speed performance and maneuverability while offering ride comfort "worthy of the first-ever Grand Highlander."
The tire's tread pattern is designed to provide "optimal" balance between quietness and driving performance on wet and snowy roads, two things that are difficult to achieve simultaneously. In addition, a reduced weight design helps reduce rolling resistance.
The Geolandar X-CV tires were developed using Yokohama Rubber's proprietary HAICoLab AI-based development framework that aims to foster new discoveries and digital innovation by merging human inspiration and creativity with AI's enormous data processing capability.
To achieve a quieter ride, engineers employed evolutionary computation (genetic algorithms) to develop an optimal tread element pitch sequence.
