Reinventing The Tyre

Tyres are more than just round and black. They are high-tech products that have to meet a wide variety of requirements and handle many different situations. Tyres are already helping to reduce fuel consumption and improve road safety, but until now they have played a largely passive role. This could soon change. In future, tyres will be spherical and will have learned to communicate.

- Christaine Kollner

FOCUSING ON ROLLING RESISTANCE

The objectives of the tyre development process include creating lighter, quieter, safer and more efficient products which means that tyre manufacturers have to meet high standards. Tyres not only have to improve the performance and comfort of the vehicle, but also increase road safety and lower fuel consumption.

As the only link between the car and the road, tyres need to fulfill a number of functions. However, drivers often underestimate what tyres can do, particularly when it comes to their contribution to saving fuel. In a modern car, the tyres are responsible for 20 to 30 % of the fuel consumption [1] because of their rolling resistance. As a general rule, a 30-% reduction in the rolling resistance of the tyres can increase the fuel efficiency of the vehicle by around 4 % [2].

Therefore, it makes sense that Michelin, for example, aims to reduce CO2 emissions with its tyre technology. “Michelin intends to make an important contribution to the sustainable mobility solutions of the future with its long-lasting, quiet tyres that have a low rolling resistance. In specific terms, this means that we will have avoided around 30 million t of CO2 emissions by 2030,” said Jean-Dominique Senard, CEO of Michelin, at the 18th Technical Congress of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) in mid-March 2016 in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

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