Leading motoring magazine Auto Express broke the story to the masses with the headline “Budget tyres face shock EU axe.”
Is this just a way to increase OE pull through on the part of the manufacturers? Doesn’t it fly in the face of the Right to Repair lobbying efforts seeking to open up vehicle repairs to independent dealers?
Auto Express’ take on the situation is that “if the EU’s latest eco proposals are agreed, owners will no longer be able to shop around for budget brands.” Instead vehicle manufacturers would virtually dictate which tyres should be used with which cars. According to the report, the new legislation would apply to cars fitted with low rolling resistance orientated tyres and owners would have to fulfill type-approval requirements in order for their car to keep its MoT.
The theory is that vehicle manufacturers are seeking to introduce the new regulation under draft EU legislation, which aims to make the average CO2 emissions from all new cars 120g/km by 2012. The vehicle manufacturers themselves are taking responsibility for reducing the average to 130 g/km, but the remainder will have to be reduced through so-called “complementary measures” such as low rolling resistance tyres, low energy air-con and biofuels.
So where next? I can imagine that a company like Continental might want to take advantage of any type approval precedent relating to its winter technologies in this direction. For some time Conti has been designing tyres that work in tandem with electronic stability controls in order to provide enhanced braking characteristics. What if legislation was to say that all winter tyres had to be designed this way in the interests of safety? The result would be tacit type approval of Continental winter tyres and a de factor ban on tyres designed with more generic cars in mind.
Listening to Francesco Gori, Pirelli Tyre CEO and ETRMA president, during the recent launch of Pirelli’s own low rolling resistance tyre it is clear that his – and no-doubt ETRMA’s position – is that EU-regulators are already asking the impossible from tyre manufacturers. They want tyres that are quieter, but seem oblivious to the fact that most significant noise improvements would be made by improving road surfaces. His implication was that legislators want tyre manufacturers to shoulder too much of the burden.
However this is all just speculation, and, in fact, Patrick Ozoux, the director of Michelin’s EU-liaison office, (speaking to the Telegraph) outright denied suggestions that this is the direction the legislation is going.
From his point of view, the latest version of the rules “will increase emissions” because they will force car manufacturers to select tyres with less than optimum rolling resistance. Ozoux even suggests the current EU CO2 reduction proposals might hinder carmakers selection of low-rolling resistance tyres because they would come under the “complimentary measures” heading. Ozoux says the proposals are still unclear, but denies they will oblige customers to keep fitting the same brand and type of tyre. (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)
