Last spring I attended the Sustainable Development Summit of the Michelin company in California, where I discovered the company’s global strategy for manufacturing its tires in order to reduce its environmental impact. An interesting strategy because it is based both on the way the manufacturer produces its tires, but also on the material it uses to create them.
First of all, you should know that Michelin is currently working to change most of the materials that make up its tires. To do this, its teams evaluate the total life cycle of a tire in order to understand the environmental impact it can generate.
We study the extraction of the material to create the tire, its manufacturing, its time of use on the vehicle, its recovery at the end of life, etc. However, with this analysis, the company realized that only 12% of the global environmental impact comes from the material used in the manufacturing of tires, regardless of the manufacturer.
The main environmental impact, the remaining 80%, therefore, comes rather from the moment when the tire rolls under the consumer’s vehicle. There are three reasons for this impact; here they are.
Three things to consider
The first element that will have a major environmental impact is based on energy efficiency, which can also be called the rolling resistance of the tire. This element will influence the energy consumption of the vehicle and will therefore become a major issue for the environmental impact. To reduce this impact, the rolling resistance of the tire will have to be reduced as much as possible.
The second major element is quite simple since it is based on the longevity of the tire. Obviously, a tire will be much more eco-responsible if it can last 10,000 kilometers instead of 5,000 kilometers.
Finally, the third element to consider is abrasion, that is, the life of the tire tread.
To reduce its environmental impact and take care of all these elements, the manufacturer will have to consider the amount of material it uses to manufacture its tires. It will aim for the best possible performance with the least possible materials.
Then, he will consider the nature of the material. At Michelin, we use a material that is made up of 70% fossil products, that is, from the oil industry. To reduce its environmental footprint, the company therefore intends to increasingly replace them with renewable or recycled materials.
However, it is important to know that more than 200 materials go into the manufacture of a tire. This shows the effort that must be put in and the amount of scientific innovation that must be deployed to move this long list of ingredients from traditional sources to renewable and recycled sources.
For example, Michelin uses silica to help its tires grip the road. Now, this is a material that cannot really be considered renewable if we consider that silica comes mainly from sand, that sand comes from rock crushed with water, and that it takes centuries and centuries to obtain sand.
Great minds think alike
According to Michelin, several leaders are working intensively these years to introduce renewable or recycled materials in the automotive industry. And the work is progressing. In California, last spring, Michelin already presented some of its new approved tires, created from a high rate of renewable or recycled materials, and which, above all, demonstrate the same performance as the traditional tire.
Except that the stock is rather limited at the moment.
The company’s next step will be to integrate these green materials not just into a small range of products, but into all of its tires.
The goal is ambitious. By 2030, Michelin wants to offer tires made from 40% renewable and recycled materials, then 100% by 2050. All in line with its global approach, which will take into account the tire’s life cycles to reduce the environmental impact as much as possible.
In fact, if the company wanted to, the deadline would be faster than 2030 or 2050. As of today, Michelin is able to create a tire made with natural rubber that would be 100% renewable or recycled, from end-of-life tires.
The problem is that performance would be greatly degraded. Rolling resistance and tire longevity would be disastrous, as would safety.
Rolling resistance, energy efficiency, safety, longevity and abrasion tendency all have to be considered, in addition to the manufacturing process, which must also avoid increasing the environmental impact.
To achieve its goals, Michelin is currently working with several partners on technologies that are evolving rapidly, so much so that the company promises that some of these technologies will already be integrated into Michelin tires as early as 2025. And 2025 is tomorrow.