Michelin built its name on tires that run on air cushions. But the world’s leading tire manufacturer sees a completely airless future.
“At Michelin, we firmly believe that airless is the way to go,” Cyrille Roget, the company’s director of scientific and technical communications, told Green Car Report at a recent event highlighting sustainability and electric vehicles. Future technology is necessary for many reasons.
One reason, he explains, is that globally about 20% of tires are retired prematurely due to damaged or punctured sidewalls. With about 1.6 billion tires annually reaching the end of their useful life, that number would amount to about 320 million tires annually “that could potentially be saved by airless technology,” Roget said.
“It’s a really useful technology in our sustainability approach, because it saves materials and saves time,” he explains. And with less material and less total production time invested, it has the potential to produce a lower lifetime carbon footprint — an aspect that automakers pay particular attention to. tram.
Michelin Uptis airless tires
No flats, no exhaust vents, no pressure testing
Michelin’s prototype airless tyre, the Uptis (Unique Anti-Perforation Tire System), may have been conceived to have a lower environmental impact, but as its name suggests, its origin suggests it has its advantages. Another big point. Although the tire is slightly heavier than a standard inflatable tire, the vehicle does not need to be equipped with spare parts, jacks, repair kits or tire pressure sensors. From a safety standpoint, it avoids flats and blowouts, while ensuring ride and handling consistency in a way that inflated tires may not.
GM’s airless tire prototype, Michelin Uptis
As Michelin has previously outlined, they see airless as a perfect fit for electric vehicles and their greater curb weight, as well as autonomous vehicles, ride-hailing services or other technology or services should always be active.
At one point, it looked like airless tires might be road-ready surprisingly soon. In 2019, with the launch of Uptis, Michelin and GM announced that the automaker would test it on Chevy Bolt EV. At the time, GM was optimistic about its Cruise autonomous vehicle unit, and the companies suggested that Original equipment airless tires could debut on the 2024 GM EV. Neither company responded to Green Car Reports about the results of that test.
Michelin Uptis airless tires on French postal trucks
Testing in the delivery team, talking to Tesla
However, more testing continues on the technology, which the company describes as being in the prototype stage. In 2023, Michelin announced Uptis real test with both DHL Express in Singapore and with La Poste, the French postal service. They are fitting about 50 vehicles in each fleet with Uptis tires, Roget explained, and the idea will be to collect as much data as possible.
Michelin needs all that data, because despite more than 130 years of manufacturing pneumatic tires, airless tires still present new challenges.
“Airless technology is completely new in terms of design, in terms of manufacturing, in terms of homologation, so we have to learn everything,” Roget summarizes. “And that’s why we have two years where we will be testing with DHL and Le Poste until the end of 2025.”
At the same time Michelin confirmed it was is negotiating with Tesla about testing Uptis. So along with wireless electric vehicle chargerit could be another ideal handheld technology suitable for the future Tesla Robotaxis.
Roget notes that the Uptis are still in prototype form and are not technically approved for road use, but Michelin makes an exception that can put them into test use.
Tesla Model 3 with Goodyear airless tire prototype
There have been other attempts at designing airless tires. Hankook and Bridgestone are among many other companies that have come up with the idea of airless tires, and Goodyear has a prototype. Toyota and tire manufacturer Sumitomo launch weight-saving products Airless tires combined with in-wheel motors in a 2017 concept, noted that progress needed to be made in cutting rolling resistance, which was still higher than inflatable designs at the time. It then shows what appears to be tire developments in 2023 Lunar Cruiser electric car concept.
Toyota Baby Lunar Cruiser concept
But Michelin boasts that it is “the only manufacturer in the world to run airless tires on open roads in real-world conditions as part of a commercial contract”. The company also said the tire is “currently being equipped on a fleet of vehicles in Las Vegas and Thailand” with customers it did not disclose.
Meanwhile, Michelin has been working on a new material inside the tire, incorporating fiberglass, that can reach performance levels very close to other modern tires. The technology has been tested internally at Michelin and has traveled more than two million miles, according to the company — and, as one executive said last year, at speeds of up to 130 mph when police use.
Michelin wool fabric
Built on Tweel
Uptis is not Michelin’s first or only airless technology. It introduced the Tweel (tire plus wheel) as a concept in 2005 and brought it to market for specific low-speed applications starting in 2012, and they are now used in many things, from lawn mowers to industrial equipment.
Michelin’s South Carolina facility was the first in the world to create the Tweel, and the concept was born at the company’s Greenville research center, so it’s fitting that this location also hosted its development. Develop airless tires and produce pilot production tires globally for testing.
Michelin Uptis airless prototype tire
While air deprivation may not be as common for decades, Michelin is also working on some more sustainable solutions, especially for electric cars that wear out tires much faster. One of them is a greener electric vehicle-specific tire with a significant boost in sustainable materials—42% or more in a recently presented prototype that will launch in 2025. They also hope will revive the popularity of retreading by rebooting the technology for trucks, allowing up to five retreads while reusing the tire’s carbon-intensive construction.
Whether with Uptis, Tweel, retreads or sustainable tires, these solutions enable smarter use of the materials and processes needed to create the wearables we use every day. this day. And it’s certainly not just hot air.
