A surprisingly compelling subject
Dinner table, or social media, conversation may centre on arguments over which football team deserves to win the league, or whether the Mustang or Camaro is better, but the common feature of such polemics is that they represent simple and interesting questions. The topic of tyres, however, and if you dare raise it, may stun your companions into silence. Tyres are not simple and interesting. They are complex and boring – at least on the outside. Delve a little deeper, and they become items of sophistication and almost wonder. Mysterious, near-anonymous products that power many parts of the modern economy and society. Omnipresent, but no ingredients label. Emissions Analytics thinks you should be interested in tyres, and you should talk about them at dinner tonight.
But if you can’t face that quite yet, you should first of all attend our newly launched conferences in Europe and US on tyre emissions and sustainability. Many excellent events already exist in this sector, but the common factor is that they look at tyres from the inside out: from the industry perspective in how to make better tyres. Environmental concerns are now forcing us to look from the outside in: how can we mitigate the effects of tyres from their manufacture and usage. Regulation is coming – and has already arrived in California.
The tyre industry is highly sophisticated yet somewhat secretive. Challenging problems are solved quietly without disclosing the nature of the solution. European tyres have achieved combinations of grip, noise and rolling resistance to meet the requirements and demands and of the market, while US tyres have remained simpler in formulation as durability has remained the over-riding preference. Unlike vehicle manufacturers, which exist in spotlight of regulation and consumer interest, tyre manufacturers just get on with it. Witness the invention of synthetic rubber in the Second World War, which has defined the industry ever since.
The big challenges today are often environmental. How to makes tyres with more sustainable materials – however they be defined? How to reduce microplastic and volatile organic emissions in use? This is not a problem created by heavy battery electric vehicles, but the near elimination of tailpipe pollutant emissions from modern vehicles has brought it into focus – many vehicles now emit 90% below emissions standards for nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and particles. Although distance-specific tyre mass emissions may be in long-term, like-for-like decline, this is increasingly offset by more vehicles on the road, more miles driven, heavier vehicles and more torque. Our testing suggests 26% tyre wear emissions from pure battery vehicles compared to equivalent full hybrids.
To counter this trend, new tyre formulations are being quietly brought to market to handle this heavier and ever more demanding vehicles. The immediate concern that ‘eco’ tyres could deliver such performance at the price of being more environmentally toxic appears to not to be simplistically true from Emissions Analytics’ latest testing. On our toxicity potential metric, these eco tyres may in fact be a quarter or more less toxic than standard tyres. This could to a great extent neutralise the increased mass wear rates, but with two caveats, First, it requires detailed analytical testing to verify this. Second, these eco tyres come at a financial price to the consumer.
While the focus in such matters of regulation tend to start with new products, it may be regulations about replacement tyres that will have a greater bearing on the combined environmental of tyres. A brand-new battery vehicle equipped with the latest, most sophisticated eco tyres limit emissions, only for that good work to be undone when they are ultimately replaced by cheaper, less sophisticated alternatives. A private saving for the vehicle owner may create a public cost in pollution.
Seeking to address these questions, our first event will take place in Prague on 28-29 February 2024, and further details can be found here. Two months later, on 24-25 April, we will pick up the discussion in Southern California, details here. We encourage you all to apply to attend and submit abstracts for presentations.
Alongside this, we will be publishing regular, detailed results of Emissions Analytics’ tyre wear and chemical composition testing, along with our monthly newsletter, via our Emissions Intelligence subscription – please contact us to find out more.
Together, these new initiatives from Emissions Analytics are engaging with society and industry to bring about an understanding and appreciation of the sheer cleverness and importance of tyres, and how vital the right choices are for the environment. Consumers want to do the right thing, but the choice of tyres for many is currently too boring and complex. Let’s change this. Let's start the conversation.