The truth about worn tyres.
Despite it potentially being a sales boon for all tyre manufacturers, French brand Michelin has come out publicly to decry the flawed logic behind the call to raise the minimum safe tyre tread depth from the current 1.6mm to 3mm in Europe.
To back up its stance, Michelin tapped Ernst & Young to collate all relevant data and present a report as to the potential environmental and financial consequences to this seemingly benign change. Citing those findings, it concluded that it could cost an additional £6.9 billion in excess fuel consumption and tyre purchases amounting to 128 million extra tyres bought and discarded in Europe alone, not to mention the resulting carbon emissions that would have occurred to produce these tyres to meet demand.
In case you’re curious, Michelin’s commissioned report estimates that this would spew an additional 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
Contrary to the European Union’s position, Michelin says that the belief that changing tyres earlier than is currently recommended would result in safer roads is ultimately false and potentially harmful as no current studies have yielded a link between accidents and tread depth.
The tyre giant claims its internal tests reveal that wet braking performance is not impeded by a depth of 1.6mm, still being comparable to results of new tyres with a full tread. In dry conditions, they found that a more worn tyre can provide more grip than a brand new one as the compound has had time to fully ‘bloom’.
Micheline’s technical manager for the UK and Ireland told Yahoo News on behalf of the company: “We don’t think it’s right that UK motorists are being encouraged by some parts of the industry to change at 3mm – it’s unnecessary and it costs them a lot of money in new tyres and fuel consumption,”
“Drivers in the UK should be aware that it is entirely possible to make tyres that perform very well down to 1.6mm. Safety at 1.6mm is about tyre performance in the wet, and that is what should be measured – not tread depth. It is the testing regime that needs changing, not the tread depth at which tyres are changed.”
You can read their full statement from Michelin here.
