Ecological Tires By Michelin
With Michelin tires You can spare gallons of fuel annually thus contributing to the protection of the environment!
How it all happens? During the ride the tire deforms to “hold” the road better thus ensuring comfort and confident steering. But the deformation leads to the tire’s heating what results in the loss of the part of the engine power. As a result every fifth full fuel tank or 20% of the total fuel consumption are spent on the struggling with the event that is called “rolling resistance”. Obviously, it cannot but cause negative consequences for the environment due to the increased amount of exhaust gases that create “greenhouse effect”.
So, major efforts of tire manufacturers are to be aimed, on the one hand, at the reducing rolling resistance and, on the other hand, at the retaining of the performance of the tire. The Michelin company draws special attention to the development of technologies that could save the problem.
Already in 1946 the Michelin company succeeded having reduced rolling resistance by 30% thanks to the production of the tires with the radial carcass. But the real revolution on the passenger tire market took place in 1992 when the Michelin company managed to add silica (silicone dioxide) to the rubber compound. Thanks to the new compound the company succeeded in reducing energy losses that occur during the deformation thus having increased the fuel efficiency of its tires.
As a result the driver was able to spare up to 3% of his fuel expenses. If all the passenger cars in the US had been equipped with “green” tires the saving would have amounted to $ 5mln. The amount of exhaust gas discharge in this case would have been reduced by 7,5 million tons what is equal to the amount of harmful substances absorbed annually by nearly 300 million trees.
Unique Michelin Tire Is Exposed At The National Corvette Museum
Austin Hatcher charitable foundation exposed a rare Michelin tire with hand-made tread at the National Corvette Museum.
Besides the tire the visitors can see the rear wheel of 2007 American Le Mans Series GT1 Championship Corvette at the museum that is situated in the town of Bowling-Green, Kentucky. The exhibit from the motor racing history will be kept in museum till the middle of January. After that it will be put to the auction the whole profit of which will be given to the children that have cancer.
During the 2009 American Le Mans Series Petite Le Mans championship the pilots of the Corvette Racing team, the guests of the Austin Hatcher foundation and celebrities had the chance to participate personally in the grooving of the tread of the unique tire mounted on BBS wheel. The whole event was called American Le Mans Series/Michelin/Corvette Racing Tire Groove Event. During one weekend a lot of people contributed to the creation of this tire. The tread has the logos of Michelin, Corvette Racing, American Le Mans Series and Austin Hatcher Foundation.
The rear wheel was presented by the Corvette Racing team. GT Corvette won all 11 racings of the 2007 American Le Mans Series championship with the Michelin tire mounted on it.
The tire was created with the help of the Corvette Racing team pilots Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, Johnny O’Connel who participated in the racing on Compuware Corvette C6.R No.3 as well as Olivier Beretta, Marcel Fassler and Oliver Gavin who drove Compuware Corvette C6.R No.4. The manager of the Corvette Racing Doug Fehan also took part in the event.
Bridgestone And Michelin Launched Sites To Help Drivers
Tire companies decided to help drivers handle the difficult winter conditions with the help of the Internet.
The Bridgestone company launched www.winterdrivingsafety.com portal in the USA. The site contains helpful advice and video with detailed instructions aimed at making winter driving safer.
“Taking into account cold snowy weather that came to many parts of the country most drivers started getting prepared to difficult and potentially dangerous road conditions, - said in the company’s announcement. – American department of Bridgestone together with its team of experts on operation of cars and tires in the winter period will help drivers get rid of the nervousness that they experience before driving in such changeable weather”.
The Michelin company also decided to give a helping hand to the drivers and presented on-line “Winter Driving Academy” where one can also get advice or choose winter tires.
There are also video clips with the instructions and animated sections that explain how to avoid danger when driving on snow-covered surface.
Canadian expert on winter driving Richard Shenard helped with the development of the site and acted in many videos shot for the portal
Pirelli Yielded to Hankook On The European Market?
Will Hankook push out Pirelli from the top five tire manufacturers of Europe?
The market research conducted by Hankook showed that the Michelin company remains an absolute leader on the tire market (both in segments of passenger and truck tires). At the same time a new player appeared in the previously stable top five – namely Hankook.
Why did Hankook decided to publish its research now, after one of the most difficult periods in the history of the market? It can be explained by the fact that 2009 was an extremely successful year for the Korean company. The peculiar combination of factors has changed the state of affairs during last 12 months. The major question now – will Hankook be able to retain its positions in Europe in the following years?
Here is the forecast of Hankook for the end of 2009 (passenger tires market): Michelin will remain the leader with the market stake of 20%, the second place goes to Goodyear Dunlop (18%), the third – to Bridgestone (12%), Pirelli has 8%. The most interesting fact here is that Hankook holds the 7th place with 7%. It means that its lagging behind Pirelli is not so big.
What concerns truck tires the first place again goes to Michelin (32%), the second place – Goodyear Dunlop (18%), Continental holds 16% of the market, Bridgestone – 13%. According to Hankook, it performs even better in this segment and holds the 5th place thus having overtaken Pirelli.
Since December has just begun the data can be regarded only as a forecast. At the same time Hankook gives 18% to other companies what means that its research is based on the analysis of the whole market. It also cannot be the result of companies that are members of ERMC Europool because the stake of Cooper and Trelleborg would be much higher in this case. Thus, there may be doubts regarding the correctness of the data in respect of sales volumes of Cooper, Kumho, GTRadial, Nexen, Nokian, Toyo, Yokohama etc. The rise of their stake will inevitably lead to the reduction of that of the five major companies. Anyway, only time can eliminate the doubts.
