Michelin e.Primacy: the tyre that saves up to 80 euros in fuel

Imagine tyres capable of reducing your car’s fuel consumption by 0.2 litres per 100 km driven? That would be the equivalent of saving around 80 euros after covering 35,000 km, which can be the estimated average lifespan of a set of tyres.

In the case of an electric car, we would be talking about an improvement of up to 7% in range, around 20 km for a vehicle rated at 300 km. Not bad at all, right? And the question is: does that tyre exist?

Michelin is back in the game with the e.Primacy, the “eco-tyre”

Well, the answer is yes: it exists, it is Michelin’s latest product, and it is called e.Primacy. It has just been officially presented and is already announced as available from March 2021. It is very reminiscent of Michelin’s first “X Green”, with which the brand began to focus on offering low rolling resistance tyres back in the 1990s.

What is the new Michelin e.Primacy like? What does this tyre have to achieve fuel consumption savings or range increases that car manufacturers would need a great deal of on-board technology to achieve?

Precisely that: a lot of technology. And all of it aimed at reducing rolling resistance… without any loss of performance. Michelin states that the e.Primacy has a rolling resistance improved by 27% compared with the average of its category. It thus achieves a A rating for energy efficiency and a B rating for wet grip on the European tyre label. Barely 1% of passenger car tyres sold in Europe currently offer both of these ratings on the label at the same time.

Among the many technologies incorporated into the Michelin e.Primacy, in addition to those that have already proven their effectiveness in the Primacy 4, such as the deep U-shaped grooves that help evacuate water regardless of wear level, the following stand out:

• AirShield energy shield, with an airtight inner liner that reduces the dissipation of energy generated during rolling
• Latest-generation compound, with a highly elastic elastomer that generates better grip by improving molecular bonding
• Thinner plies at the crown of the tyre that reduce the amount of raw material used and benefit low rolling resistance
• Maxtouch construction, designed to increase the contact of the tyre with the asphalt and distribute forces more evenly

The new Michelin e.Primacy will be offered for 15 to 20 inch wheels, intended for passenger cars and SUVs. The price will be slightly higher than that of the current Michelin Primacy 4, although the brand assures that this increase will be clearly offset by the savings the e.Primacy delivers thanks to its reduced consumption.

An environmentally friendly tyre

For those most concerned about the environment, in addition to the reduction in atmospheric emissions resulting from its better rolling resistance, which can be estimated at around 174 kg of CO2 over the tyre’s useful life, the new Michelin e.Primacy also innovates in another area. It is the first Michelin tyre with a carbon-neutral balance at the point of purchase. This means the brand has carried out a life-cycle analysis of the tyre, taking into account the energy used in its production, from the extraction of raw materials to transport to the point of sale.

To achieve this neutral emissions balance, Michelin not only produces the e.Primacy efficiently. It also finances projects aimed at offsetting the residual emissions linked to tyre manufacturing that cannot be eliminated directly in the production process.

In this video you can see in more detail some of the features that distinguish the new Michelin e.Primacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER3RzFeH_pI&feature=youtu.be

Related information of interest

• Cracked tyres: what are they and what dangers do they pose?
• Tyres and fines: this is how you can be penalised
• Tyres: everything you need to know

Michelin e.Primacy image gallery