Yokohama Rubber’s ADVAN tires coming factory-equipped on Toyota’s new Alphard and Vellfire

Hiratsuka, Japan—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that it is supplying its ADVAN V03 tires as original equipment (OE) to Toyota Motor Corporation for use on the automaker’s new luxury minivans, the Alphard and Vellfire, which were launched in June 2023. The Alphard is being fitted with 225/65R17 102H and 225/60R18 100H size tires while the Vellfire is being equipped with 225/65R17 102H.

The ADVAN V03 is a high-performance tire in YOKOHAMA’s global flagship ADVAN brand. The tires being supplied as OE for Alphard and Vellfire were developed using specialized tuning to match their tread pattern, profile, and tire structure to the vehicle characteristics, while also employing an optimal pitch sequence obtained using evolutionary computation (genetic algorithms) by Yokohama Rubber’s proprietary HAICoLab, an AI-based development framework. The development allows the tires to contribute to a highly stable, comfortable, and quiet ride that befits the Alphard and Vellfire. In addition, the lightweight design reduces rolling resistance.

An acronym for “Humans and AI ColLaborate” for digital innovation

HAICoLab aims to foster new discoveries and digital innovation by merging human inspiration and creativity with AI’s enormous data processing capability. This framework is applied in the development of the ADVAN V03 through AI’s predict, analyze, and search functions using collected actual data and virtual data generated by simulations.

Under Yokohama Rubber’s three-year (2021–2023) medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2023 (YX2023), the consumer tire business aims to maximize the sales ratios of high-value-added YOKOHAMA tires, namely the global flagship ADVAN brand, the GEOLANDAR brand of tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, and various winter tires. One of the key initiatives under this strategy is expanding the adoption of ADVAN and GEOLANDAR tires as original equipment on new cars.