With ENLITEN technology, new models deliver up to 18% more grip in the wet and up to 40% more durability
For a long time, the tire industry lived with a contradiction: gaining in efficiency almost always meant yielding in performance. Reducing rolling resistance compromised grip, improving mileage could decrease performance in the wet. For every advance, there was a price to pay in some other attribute.
Bridgestone, one of the world’s largest tire manufacturers, spent years questioning whether this logic was even inevitable. The answer is no, and ENLITEN technology is proof of that.
Developed globally and now expanding in the Brazilian market, it has been incorporated into two new launches: the Turanza 6, which delivers up to 18% more grip in the wet and 14% more mileage compared to its predecessor, and the Dueler A/T Ascent I, with 40% more durability compared to its predecessor.
ENLITEN technology comes to the passenger segment to revolutionise the way Bridgestone tyres are developed. It combines state-of-the-art engineering, intelligent use of materials and tailor-made high performance, while ensuring durability, safety and commitment to sustainability.
It brings together solutions aimed at reducing rolling resistance, gains in stability and drivability, without compromising the useful life of the tires.
In Brazil, the application of technology includes local development. The compounds were formulated considering specific characteristics of the country, such as climate, road conditions and driver usage patterns.
According to the company, the proposal is to incorporate these factors from development, rather than just replicate specifications adopted in other markets.
The result appears in the product numbers: in the Turanza 6, for example, there was a 9% gain in energy efficiency, in addition to achieving an A grade in Inmetro in terms of wet grip, without compromising mileage or stability.
Among the features that enable these results are 3D zigzag sipes — redesigned grooves that extend tire life by reducing stresses between blocks and optimizing tire contact with the ground.
ENLITEN technology has been designed for the future of electrification, with special attention to hybrid vehicles. The instantaneous torque of these motors and the additional weight of the batteries require tires with reinforced carcasses, high-tech compounds, precise steering response, quiet driving and lower rolling resistance, ensuring performance and efficiency without compromising the vehicle’s autonomy.
The Turanza 6 is Bridgestone’s first passenger tire in Brazil to incorporate ENLITEN technology, bringing advances in efficiency, durability and performance. Developed to suit a wide range of vehicles — hatches, sedans, SUVs and crossovers — the model was designed to provide greater safety, precise driving, quiet driving and comfort, attributes valued by drivers of different profiles.
Among the gains compared to previous generations, the Turanza 6 offers 18% more grip on wet roads, 14% more mileage and 9% lower rolling resistance, ensuring energy efficiency for combustion cars and greater autonomy for hybrid vehicles.
“We were able to improve grip, mileage and energy efficiency without giving up any performance attributes,” says Roberto Ayala, sales engineering manager. And there’s more: the tire earned an A grade in wet grip by Inmetro, a performance benchmark recognized by the market.
Produced in Brazil with Bridgestone’s most advanced compounds and manufacturing processes, the Turanza 6 serves hatches and sedans that represent more than 70% of the circulating fleet in the country, as well as SUVs and crossovers, such as Corolla, Civic, Cruze, Jetta, HR-V, Kicks, Tracker and Fastback, as well as hybrid and electric vehicles.
From a constructive point of view, the product has a closed-shoulder design to significantly reduce noise, providing a quieter and more comfortable ride. It has advanced compounds that increase durability and maximize service life, in addition to having better energy efficiency and overall drivability performance compared to the previous version.
The Dueler A/T Ascent I arrives to serve a segment in full expansion. In May 2025, SUVs already accounted for about 54% of passenger car registrations in Brazil, according to data from Fenabrave — and the driver in this segment demands a tire capable of performing both on and off the asphalt, without sacrificing comfort or durability.
Demand is driven by agribusiness, for mixed use — work and leisure — and by the growth of Asian automakers, which arrive in Brazil with increasingly larger SUVs and pickup trucks.
With ENLITEN technology, the Dueler A/T Ascent I offers up to 40% more durability compared to the previous generation, meeting the demands of performance on wet roads, uneven terrain and paved highways and preserving comfort, quiet driving, stability and structural robustness. In tests carried out on a wet track, the model reduced the braking distance by up to 3.8 meters compared to the previous version, reinforcing active safety and control in critical situations.
It is exactly this contradiction, historically difficult to resolve, that Dueler A/T Ascent I sets out to eliminate. At the same time, the level of acoustic comfort on paved highways surprised even the development team – a rare attribute in a product in the segment.
When you talk about an all-terrain tire, it is usually uncomfortable on paved highways. Not this one. And when you see the off-road performance and the noise level it delivers — it’s fantastic,” says Ayala.
From a construction point of view, the Dueler A/T Ascent I combines closed shoulder for noise reduction, spaced blocks for off-road and wet performance, which provide excellent self-cleaning, angle of attack that protects against pulls and punctures — characteristics that explain the unusual balance between comfort, reliable traction and consistent performance, and 3D grooves for greater rigidity ensuring excellent grip on wet roads.
The off-tarmac performance was also tested in real conditions. At the Bridgestone Proving Ground in São Pedro, in the interior of São Paulo, press and dealers were able to compare the Dueler A/T Ascent I with its previous version on wet tracks and muddy roads. The result confirmed the laboratory data — and surpassed it.
Check out how the tests went:
Bringing a global technology to the Brazilian market could simply mean adapting a developed product to other conditions. Bridgestone opted for a different path: the compounds of the Turanza 6 and the Dueler A/T Ascent I were developed exclusively for the local market – the climate, the profile of the roads and the characteristics of use of the Brazilian driver are incorporated in the formulation of each tire. The production is also national.
“Our products are made for the Brazilian market, designed for our customers, our roads, our characteristics, our climate. We are talking about differentiated products”, says Lafaiete Oliveira, Bridgestone’s Country Manager in Brazil.
With the 2026 launches, Bridgestone shows that technology, durability and comfort can go hand in hand. More than equipping vehicles, the brand projects the future of mobility in Brazil, ensuring consistent performance, safety and reliability for each kilometer driven.
