The data picked silica in 2002. Europe began grading tires on rolling resistance 10 years later.
Carbon black has reinforced tire treads for most of a century. Silica, bonded to the rubber with a silane, the coupling Degussa developed in 1971, cuts rolling resistance and improves wet grip. Michelin launched the first silica “green” tire in 1992, and by 2002 silica was established in Europe’s premium tires, but whether it would take the passenger tread everywhere was still open. For each filler we measured how much better per dollar it got each year, using only the patents that existed at the time.
% better per dollar each year, 1990–2025. Improvement rate is read from patent citation networks across 180M+ patents.
Carbon black stayed ahead through the 1990s, even after Michelin’s launch, apart from two close years. In 2002 silica pulled ahead, and it has stayed ahead at every reading since. By 2013 silica was getting about 29% better per dollar every year, carbon black about 22%.
Silica with a silane gives about 25% lower rolling resistance and 10% better wet grip than carbon black, with no loss in wear. Silica became the main filler of the passenger tread, and it needs a silane to bond it, so the shift carried both of Evonik’s product lines. Carbon black kept truck treads and the rest of the tire.
Our data: silica improving faster than carbon black.
Tire silica is big money: demand growing about 20% a year.
Evonik starts adding about 30% to its silica capacity for tires.
Evonik sells its carbon black business for over €900 million and keeps silica.
EU tire label: rolling resistance and wet grip on every new tire.
Evonik buys Huber’s silica business for $630 million.
It would not have said when Europe would grade tires, or which tire maker would lead. It would have said silica would become the main filler of the passenger tread, not a partner to carbon black, five years before tire silica became big money.
For a silica and silane maker, that is the window to build capacity ahead of demand. Degussa-Hüls was already there: it doubled its tire silane capacity in 2000, two years before the reading.
Silica still leads, but the gap has narrowed since 2013. The same reading works for the race you face now, such as silica made from rice husk ash.
TIR — the Technology Improvement Rate — measures how fast a technology gets better each year, computed from global patent data. Not who is filing, or how much: how fast the route is actually moving. Historically, the fastest-improving technology always wins.
Provenance. Every patent carries a filing date, so the record can be replayed: every improvement rate on this page uses only the patents that were public at the time. Chart data: GetFocus platform exports, October 2026.
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