We Reveal The Greenest Tyres To Fit On Your Car

Thursday, 1. October 2009

According to Michelin we are likely to see much greener tyres in the future. Not colour green, those wags at Michelin point out, but environmentally green. They explained that along with many other tyre manufacturers they have been supporting the tests carried out by DEKRA and TUV. They take a fleet of cars and fit single make tyres on them then drive the 8 identical cars a distance of 10,000Km in 2 convoys. The routes include a mix of rural, urban, national and motorway type roads and are subject to the usual problems of congestion, variable road surfaces and weather conditions. Ordinary drivers are used, not specialist ex F1 drivers and the cars are switched around as are drivers and tyres to eliminate the effects that individual drivers and cars may have on the results. Of course you’ll be surprised to see that Michelin came out particularly well with their 195/65 R 15 Michelin Energy Saver providing 38% more life than its competitors and saved more than £40 in fuel over 20,000 miles. A thoroughly interesting fact emerged that, contrary to popular belief, low-rolling resistant tyres can stop in the wet equally as well as ‘normal’ tyres, if not better. Glad that one’s been cleared up, it’s been causing me to have sleepless nights for years. By Graham Hill