MIAMI — Online tire retailer Tirescanner.com Inc., seeking to reach "time-poor" motorists, is organizing a network of independent mobile tire-installers to complement its online business model.

FINDLAY, Ohio — Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will ramp up its capital spending in 2020 in large part to upgrade and expand plants in Mexico and Serbia, where work already is under way to prepare them for additional production and product lines.

PARIS — Goodyear has landed the tire supply contract for a new touring-car-based electric-vehicle racing series that's being organized by Eurosport Events, the promoter of the FIA World Touring Car Cup and other motorsports series.

AKRON — At first glance, the U.S. consumer tire aftermarket displayed moderate strength last year, with replacement passenger and light truck tire shipments up 2.2% and 2.5%, respectively, over 2018.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation issued 22 new DOT plant identification codes in the past year for tire factories worldwide, including nine in China and three in India.

LAS VEGAS — Fury Off-Road Tires, the Irving, Texas-based private brander catering to the extreme light truck sector, is branching into the recreational off-road sector with the Country Hunter UTV, designed for the growing full-size ultra-terrain vehicle market.

AKRON — The interaction between the tire industry and the world's motorsport community has undergone a seismic shift in the past few years that will result in nearly all of the major racing series committing to a single tire supplier situation.

RICHFIELD, Ohio — Nexen Tire Corp. has secured an OE supply position with Canoo Inc., the Los Angeles-based company that's developing an innovative electric-vehicle platform designed for the emerging shared/autonomous transportation sector.

LAS VEGAS — 2020 is shaping up as a year of resurgence by leading Chinese tire makers in the U.S. marketplace — albeit with tires sourced from Thailand, Vietnam and/or Malaysia.

DENVER — File this one under the “Necessity is the mother of invention” maxim.

SAKHIR, Bahrain — Goodyear has secured a multi-year contract to be the spec race tire supplier to the FIA World Endurance Championship's LMP2 prototype class starting with the 2020/21 season.

SAN FRANCISCO — Ride-hailing pioneer Uber Technologies Inc. is targeting the automotive aftermarket service sector with a revised "Uber for Business" platform that it sees as a viable alternative to courtesy shuttles.

RICHFIELD, Ohio — Nexen Tire Corp. CEO Travis Kang cut the ribbon today on his company's newest investment, the $5.2 million America Technical Center in Richfield, a facility that's expected to help the South Korean tire maker improve its position as an OE tire supplier in North America

LAS VEGAS — Vehicle component producers Huf Hülsbeck & Fürst G.m.b.H. & Co. K.G. and Shanghai Baolong Automotive Group have formed a joint venture, BH SENS, that combines their respective tire pressure monitoring systems businesses into a new entity.

AKRON — It's beginning to sound like a broken record, but M&A — mergers and acquisitions — again influenced business development in the North American retail tire and auto service sector over the past year.