Name:  Michelin Group       

City: Greenville, S.C.  

Chairman:  Jim Micali

Product: Tires

Phone: 864-458-4511   Year Founded: 1889

    A guiding principle throughout Michelin’s history has been a constant focus on reducing the tire’s environmental footprint. However, sustainable mobility also implies road safety, and these two themes - reducing the environmental impact of its tires and improving road safety - are the top priorities of Michelin’s research and development programs.

      This dual focus dates to 1946 and the invention of the radial tire, which helped improve tire performance in a number of different areas. One of the improvements was a sharp reduction in rolling resistance that led to lower fuel consumption. In 1992, Michelin was the first tire manufacturer to integrate silica into the tread, which resulted in another significant reduction in the amount of energy needed to keep vehicles moving. This marked the launch of the green tire. Fifteen years later, in 2007, Michelin introduced its fourth generation green energy saving tire, which was capable of further improving a car’s energy balance.

      Michelin has focused on rolling resistance because a tire has its greatest environmental impact when it is in use on the vehicle, not during manufacture or end-of-life disposal. Tires alone consume one tank of fuel out of five for a car and one out of three for a truck. This means that they are responsible for 20 to 30 percent of a vehicles’ fuel consumption and, consequently, for an equivalent percentage of its emissions of CO2, one of the gases that cause the greenhouse effect.

      According to an estimate from the World Business Council on Sustainable Development, the number of cars currently on the road worldwide - 850 million - will double by 2030. This has created a need for innovative solutions to reduce the environmental impact of road mobility. Michelin is playing a key role in this area. With nearly 4 percent of annual sales allocated for research and development programs at its Technology Center, Michelin was the first player in the transport sector to introduce major innovations capable of reducing the environmental footprint of cars, trucks and other vehicles.

      The challenge is to improve tire performance in one area - rolling resistance in this instance - without sacrificing performance in other areas, such as safety and tire longevity. This approach has guided all of Michelin’s fundamental advances and will continue to do so in the future.

      Launched by Michelin in 1992, the Energy tire made a significant difference, lowering rolling resistance by around 20 percent compared to a standard tire. To achieve this result, Michelin replaced the carbon black in the tread with silica, thereby improving energy efficiency while delivering the same performance in terms of both grip, especially on wet surfaces, and wear resistance.

      The latest generation green tire, the Michelin Energy Saver reduces fuel consumption by nearly 0.2 1/100 km in combined cycle driving, compared to the market average for leading tire brands. This in turn reduces the CO2 emissions of a car equipped with Michelin Energy Saver tires by 4 g/km. Over the tire’s full life, this represents an approximately one ton reduction in the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere. By comparison, that’s the amount of CO2 absorbed by 40 trees in one year.

      Low rolling resistance technology is also deployed for truck tires. The most recent addition to the green Energy truck tire range is the Michelin A2 Energy, which can reduce a trucking company’s fuel budget by up to 6 percent. This represents a significant savings given that the average fuel consumption for a long-haul truck is 35 1/100 km. In other words, this means that the fuel savings for a tractor-trailer rig can offset the cost of all its tires in just one and a half years on the road.

      Longer-lasting tires means fewer tires to dispose of and also fewer tires to manufacture, which means a reduction in raw materials and energy consumed.

      Since 1980, the average mileage of a Michelin truck tire has increased by a multiple of 2.4, thanks in particular to advances in tread design, architecture and compounds, as well as to the development of regrooving and retreading technologies.

      Tire-road noise accounts for a large proportion of the exterior noise generated by vehicles; at least 30 percent for a car driving at 30 km/h in second gear, at least 50 percent at 50 km/h in third gear and around 90 percent on highways at 130 km/h.

      Using measurements from test vehicles equipped with special sensors, Michelin is constantly striving to improve its tires’ noise levels. The issue of tire-road noise was addressed in European directive 2001/43/EC. Gradually being implemented from 2003 through 2011, the directive will limit tire noise on passenger cars to between 72 and 78 dB depending on the width and type of tire (coast-by tests at 80 km/h, engine off). While pursuing its own efforts to improve tire noise performance, Michelin has also entered into partnerships with experts in these fields, particularly road surfacing companies.

      Even though Michelin tires last longer, they inevitably reach the end of their useful life. At that point they become a secondary raw material. Where authorized by local legislation, Michelin and other manufacturers help to set up sustainable tire recovery channels in the country, with the goal of eliminating on-land disposal once and for all.

      Tires are 100 percent recyclable, either as new materials or as energy. In Western Europe, the recovery rate increased from 65 percent in 2001 to nearly 90 percent in 2005, and the number of outlets for used tires is on the rise. Some countries that didn’t know what to do with used tires a few years ago are now unable to meet demand from companies that recover and recondition so-called end-of-life tires.

      The growing volume of goods shipped overland cannot be handled simply by putting more trucks on the road, which would lead to more traffic jams and more CO2 and other harmful emissions.

      Already, Michelin has made a significant contribution to streamlining truck silhouettes with its Series 55, 60 and 70 tires, which allow the height of a trailer or a semi-trailer coupling to be lowered, thereby increasing its volume by up to five cubic meters.

      In 15 years, compared to all other types of tire, the 570 million Michelin green energy saving tires sold worldwide have reduced fuel consumption by an estimated 9 billion liters, resulting in a reduction of CO2 emissions of 22 million metric tons, the equivalent of the amount absorbed by 880 million trees in one year. This means that every second 43.9 liters of fuel are saved and 109.14 kilograms of CO2 are not released into the atmosphere. These figures were displayed to millions of people around the world.

      Rolling resistance varies greatly from one tire to the next, sometimes by as much as 50 percent among different brand tires on the same vehicle. This means, for example, on a car that consumers an average of 61/100 km, fuel consumption will increase by 0.3 1/100 km if the car is equipped with tires whose rolling resistance is 50 percent greater than tires that deliver superior rolling resistance. The corresponding increase in CO2 emissions will be 8.3 g/km.

      Rolling resistance makes a substantial impact, which is why Michelin is working to make it easier for consumers to transparently and intelligently choose the right tire. Seen from this standpoint, the customer’s choice of replacement tires becomes an act of both personal and environmental responsibility. This is because fuel savings represents mainly an individual gain, while the slightest reduction in CO2 emissions represents a collective gain since it contributes to a better environment.