We talk about the future a lot on this podcast—after all it is right there in the name. And right now the future is abuzz, pun intended, with the potential of electric trucks, which have spent the past year making their way into real-world heavy- and medium-duty routes for the first time.

There is a lot of excitement brought about by these trucks, but a lot of questions that go along with them, not the least of which is: how will this affect the existing components on the trucks? Will fleets spec’ing electric trucks have to change their usual orders to optimize for this new fuel source?

It’s something Continental has been working on—the tire company announced in July that it has been testing tires specifically built for electric trucks in Germany.

When I saw this news I instantly wanted to know more – to start with, why do electric trucks need specialized tires? For that answer and several others, I spoke with Hinnerk Kaiser, head of tire development for truck and bus tires at Continental. Listen below for the full episode, and catch up with past podcasts here.