The USA and Japan

Environmental performance and user benefits are essential when it comes to sustainable and responsible mobility. This is the general consensus expressed through different approcahes by the European Union, North America and Japan.

In November 2009, the European Union adopted a regulation - mandatory for the 27 Member States - based n two principles. The first is the minimum performance threshold below which tyres will no longer be able to be sold in Europe. The second is a ranking according to letters (A, B, C, E, F, G) which determines the fuel economy and sound level standards for Passenger Car and Light Truck and Truck tyres.

Moreover, Passenger Car tyres must satisfy the criterion of grip on wet ground. Florence Doucy from Michelin's Public Affairs department in Brussels explains, "the European political authorities have taken stock of the challenges! Adopting grading and green tyres means reducing CO2 emissions by 20 million metric tons per year. Secondly, through fuel savings, it increases the buying power of European consumers by 8 billion euros per year!" This regulation will into force in 2012.

In 2007 a parallel decision was taken in the US for potential application in 2011. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) decided to standardise three tyre properties: rolling resistance, grip on wet ground and longevity. The performace balance is dear to Michelin and the group has always actively campaigned for it. Thus, tyres sold on the US market must be labelled on a scale of 0 to 100 on these three factors.

From this year onwards and on the basis of voluntary marking, the Japanese will phase in a process of allocating green and white descriptive labels to Passenger Car tyres. The fruit of lenghty talks between the leading players in the field in Japan - including Michelin manufacturers will be able to affix a label on their tyres to attest to what cannot be seen by the naked eye: potential fuel savings through the "rolling resistance factor" and better grip on wet ground, which reduces breaking distance. In Japan, this "performance labelling" will be progressively rolled out by range with "green tyres". The Japanses version displays 5 levels of performance for rolling resistance and 4 grip on wet ground.