TIres are a criminally underrated part of any modern vehicle. A car can have the most fantastic chassis, cutting-edge suspension, and ultra-precise steering, but opting for the wrong rubber can undo all of the engineering endeavor.
After all, the material that shrouds the wheels of a modern car is the last contact between it and the road beneath. Today’s tires must provide perfect grip, brake over the shortest distance possible, last a long time, and also consume the least amount of energy.
They also have to afford the most comfortable ride, transfer as little road noise as possible, and transit the vehicle’s power to the ground in the most efficient manner, whether in sunshine or rain.
We ask a lot of these black circles, but in today’s environment-conscious world, this also means leading manufacturers like Michelin must consider their environmental impact, too.
During an exclusive event at Michelin’s exclusive research and development facility in Ladoux, France, some of the world’s leading automotive, technology, and lifestyle media were invited to peek behind the curtain and discover exactly what goes into a modern tire—from the detailed science of rubber compounds to methods for maximizing their lifespan.
Michelin invests more than €1 billion every year into research, which helps refine and improve the tire formula for all cars, regardless of how they are powered. After all, the low rolling resistance of a tire will not only save at the fuel pumps, it will also help an electric vehicle travel further on a single charge.
Through extensive research, Michelin discovered that the resistance between a car’s tires and the road is responsible for approximately 20 percent of a car’s energy consumption. If you drive a petrol or diesel car, that’s almost one in five tanks of fuel lost to these inefficiencies.
It’s a similar story where electric vehicles are concerned, which is why something like Michelin’s e-PRIMACY tire can offer an up to 7 percent increase in EV range compared to its competitors thanks to its cutting-edge design.
On top of this, advances in material science ensure the rolling resistance of some of Michelin’s most advanced tires has already halved over the last few decades. By the year 2030, the company aims to decrease the effects of rolling resistance by a further 10 percent.
Michelin has been very vocal around issues of sustainability and has openly said that by 2050 it wants all its tires to comprise 100 percent renewable or recycled materials, with a maintained, or even improved performance level, and for these to be able to meet the needs of all vehicles, battery-powered or not.
But perhaps one of the most concerning insights is that 50 percent of all tires are removed before the end or their useful life. This means 400 million tires are being prematurely scrapped or forced into the energy intensive recycling process, while new tires are having to be produced when arguably not necessary.
The legal wear limit for tires in most countries is just 1.6 mm, although Michelin has found that most are being removed before they’ve reached a depth of 3 mm.
To combat this, Michelin offers an entire range of high-tech tires that provide the same grip, stopping power and overall performance right up until the very last mile—something select journalists and media were allowed to experience at Michelin’s R&D centre.
Driving vehicles equipped with already worn Michelin tires, guests could put these through demanding acceleration, braking, and handling tests to see how they compared to tires at the very beginning of their life, as well as those of competitors.
Due to the extensive research into the technology, drivers will find that Michelin tires will perform at their very best, from the first to the very last mile.
Despite the need to extract raw materials from the earth, as well as the energy requirements of the manufacturing process, most of the tire’s environmental impact is produced during the usage stage. Some of this impact stems from particles emitted due to tire wear as they make contact with the road.
With electric vehicles helping to drive down local emissions thanks to emitting nothing in the way of CO2 from their tailpipes, attention has now turned to other potential harmful particles produced by these often larger and heavier vehicles, such as brake dust and rubber particles from tires.
Michelin is investing large sums and a huge amount of resources into research and development in this field. For the last 20 years, Michelin has been committed to reducing tire abrasion and to research on wear particles and ways to limit them.
By setting these values, it will effectively eliminate the poorest-performing tires from the market—a point that has been highlighted by the vast chasm between Michelin’s top -performing products and those from less technically accomplished rivals.
During one study, which analyzed 2,000 market tires between 2013 and 2018, it was found that the Michelin CrossClimate2 model emits a total of 1.5 kg of particles during 20,000 km of use in one year. This is less than half that of the market average (3.5 kg), while the worst performing tires were found to emit a massive 8 kg of particles.
Continuing this drive to improve not just the safety and performance of Michelin products, but also increasing the longevity and decreasing their environmental impact, is paramount to the company’s vision of the future.
The company predicts that by 2030, electric vehicles will only represent 12 percent of the global vehicle fleet, and if we want fast and wide-scale action, Michelin feels it cannot dedicate the best technologies purely to electric vehicles.
Whether summer, winter, all-season, or sports, Michelin tires offer the best of all its technologies, for all uses and without distinction between vehicles.
For more information on Michelin tires please click here.
