The European Commission (EC) has announced its intention to revise the European tire labelling scheme. The Commission published a roadmap on 11 July indicating the timescale for this. The final revision is expected to be published in early 2019, and most of 2018 will be spent thrashing out the details of the revisions. Although a
Tag: rolling resistance
Tire labelling in China and Europe: part 3
In the last month there have been some significant developments in the tire industry with respect to labelling. First, China has developed its own label. It was shown at a press conference in Beijing on 22 April 2016. Second the EU has published a major study on tire labelling Third, the EU has begun a
Tire testing comes under intense scrutiny
Last week, Nokian implicitly admitted that it rigged magazine tests of tires. In this column I want to look at how and why it might have done that and then look at some of the implications of the admission. Nokian admits rigging tests First, the facts as we know them. Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti last week
Why the Tire Tech conference will help your business
Tire Tech opens in three weeks time at its new venue in Hanover. Many of you know that I was closely involved in developing the conference programme for 2016. In this column I discuss some of the highlights of the conference, and how tire professionals can benefit. First, I want to thank the team at
TPMS law drives All-season tire development in Europe
At the Frankfurt IAA motor show yesterday, two major themes emerged from my conversations with tire makers: New European legislation on TPMS is pushing tire makers to develop super-charged All-Season tires for European markets Global legislation on fuel economy means car makers are setting extreme targets for tire rolling resistance EU market moving toward All-Season
How bio-engineering helps sustainability in the tire industry
Today’s announcement that Yokohama and Nippon Zeon have successfully made isoprene monomer from micro-organisms set me thinking about bio-tech in the rubber industry. I first reported on the use of micro-organisms to make isoprene back in 2008 when Goodyear announced its cooperation with Genencor. Genencor subsequently became part of DuPont. Since then, Goodyear has gone
Tire stories from Geneva Auto Salon
Three key stories emerged from the opening day of the Geneva Motor Show. ETRMA members met in Geneva and agreed to work together to help governments enforce the EU Labelling scheme Tire makers see the EU car tire sales downturn as structural – no recovery any time soon. BMW once again leads the OE field
Michelin licences Cabot liquid mixing technology
Cabot Corp is receiving royalties from Michelin. The revenues come from an exclusive licence to Michelin for Cabot’s liquid mixing technology. Cabot sells the technology into the non-tire sector as Transfinity. Cabot’s main product is carbon black. The licence covers all tire-related applications for the technology. The licence permits Michelin to build and operate factories