At CES Las Vegas 2023 in Nevada, The SMART Tire Company (STC) recently unveiled an almost unbreakable tire – a technological breakthrough that could revolutionize the industry.

Using a technique developed by NASA that has already been used on the wheels of the Mars Curiosity vehicle, STC created its first commercial product METL tires in collaboration with the NASA Glenn Research Center.

The award-winning SMART Tire (which stands for Shape Memory Alloy Radial Technology) has a patented load-bearing design that takes advantage of the unique properties of shape memory alloys. These special metals can expand, contract, bend or unbend at a very rapid rate (like rubber) and with so much force that it can move heavy objects. Even with extreme deformation, the tire regains 100% of its shape through phase transitions at the molecular level.

METL airless bike tire won two CES 2023 Innovation Awards as Honorees in two different categories, Vehicle Tech & Advanced Mobility and Sustainability, Eco-Design & Smart Energy.

The estimated price for the METL bicycle tire is $100-$150 at launch.

STC claim that the tire is totally green and can be fully recycled at the end of its life.

METL tires are already available for electric scooters, although the company’s main goal – is to develop the tires for the automotive market.

METL stands for Martensite Elasticised Tubular Loading. This material and technique promise to provide tires with the same amount of resistance as the metal tires used by NASA vehicles. Punctures have no effect on METL alloy tires. Additionally, after being deformed, they have the ability to regain their previous shape.

To learn more about METL tires, visit SMART Tire Company’s website.