Nexen Tire claims first-ever night race win in eN1 class, sweeping podium

Nexen Tire announced Monday that Kim Young-chan of DCT Racing, running on Nexen tires, won the Gran Turismo eN1 class Round 3 Race 2 of the Hyundai N Festival held Saturday at Inje Speedium in Gangwon Province, with teammate Kim Gyu-min finishing second to complete a double podium.

The race was the first night race in the history of the Hyundai N Festival's eN1 class. Night racing introduces variables such as lower road surface temperatures, reduced visibility and different tire warm-up characteristics, making the overall performance of both car and tires even more critical. Nexen Tire secured first and second place under these new conditions, underscoring its competitive presence.

The eN1 class is an electric vehicle one-make race series using the Ioniq 5 N Cup Car, launched in 2024 as the world's first EV racing series to run on slick tires developed exclusively for racing. With high-performance electric race cars producing up to 650 horsepower, the combination of strong torque and high vehicle weight subjects tires to repeated heavy loads and friction.

Nexen Tire supplies ultra-high-performance racing tires to major domestic and international motorsport events, including the Hyundai N Festival and the One Super Race Championship. Through its EV Route technology, the company has been reinforcing load capacity, grip, braking performance and driving stability for the electrification era.

EV Route represents Nexen Tire's electrification technology direction, designed to address the complex demands of electric vehicles — including high load, instant torque, low noise, driving stability and efficiency. Through motorsport, the company validates tire performance under extreme conditions and uses the accumulated data to advance its high-performance tire technology.

The EV Route technology has also translated into original equipment tire supply wins with global automakers. Nexen Tire supplies original equipment tires for a range of internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles from premium brands including Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, and provides its Nfera Sport tire for the BMW iX3, which adopts the next-generation pure-electric vehicle platform "Neue Klasse."

The company also supplies original equipment tires for the Hyundai Motor IONIQ 6, the China-market electric SUV Elexio, and Kia's electric vehicle lineup from the EV3 through the EV9. It recently began supplying tires to global EV manufacturer BYD as well.

"Achieving a double podium with a victory in the eN1 class's first-ever night race proves Nexen Tire's electrification technology, represented by EV Route, under the most extreme racing conditions," a Nexen Tire official said. "We will continue to strengthen our differentiated product competitiveness in the high-performance electric vehicle market, drawing on the technology and data we have built through motorsport."

Meanwhile, Nexen Tire established its Seoul Magok central research center, "The Nexen University," in 2019. The facility has a total floor area of 57,171 square meters across two below-ground and eight above-ground floors and serves as the hub for the company's research and development efforts.

Last August, the company partnered with UK-based Ansible Motion to build a high-dynamic driving simulator — the first of its kind in the domestic tire industry — and has been applying digital technologies including AI and virtual reality across its R&D operations to shorten development timelines and improve product quality.