Michelin launching all-season in Europe

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France (March 3, 2015) — Group Michelin has developed and is rolling out an all-season tire, the CrossClimate, for Europe, calling it the the “first summer tire with winter certification.”

Michelin is the second major tire maker to launch an all-season line this year. Pirelli unveiled its Cinturato All-Season in early February, saying the tire is designed to appeal to a range of buyers whose situation doesn't merit winter tires but who do encounter winter conditions on a limited basis.

Michelin calls the CrossClimate a “fusion of summer and winter tire technologies…which until now were thought to be incompatible.”

In launching the CrossClimate, Michelin cited market research that shows nearly two-thirds of European motorists use summer tires all year, jeopardizing their safety in cold weather, snow and ice. The percentage varies from 20 percent in Germany, where regulations require winter tires to be fitted in winter conditions, to 76 perent in France, where there are no regulatory constraints.

Research also revealed that four in 10 European motorists consider the seasonal tire change a “constraint” and therefore leave it until the very last moment to change or don't change at all. In addition, Michelin discovered that 3 percent of drivers in Germany and 7 percent in France use their winter tires all year, compromising dry braking, particularly in warm weather and increasing fuel consumption.

Some of the new tire's characteristics, according to Michelin:

• It brakes in short distances on dry ground;
• It carries an “A” wet braking label;
• It carries the industry's winter use ID, the Three-Peak Mountain with Snow Flake.

Michelin said it has achieved acceptable all-season performance by the use of:

1. Innovative rubber technology that couples a silica-based “supple” tread compound for all-weather road adherence with an undertread that optimizes reduces heat generation and thus enhances energy efficiency.

2. A V-shaped tread pattern coupled with 3D interlocking sipes to optimize grip on snow both laterally due to the angle of the central area of the tread and longitudinally due to the angle being more flared in the shoulder areas.

3. Self-blocking 3D sipes produce a claw effect on snow and thus increase traction.

4. Use of “EverGrip” tread-regenerating technology in the shoulders.

5. Use of bevelled-edged tread blocks with high-performance sipes to ensure optimum contact with the road surface to improve dry braking performance.

Michelin will launch the CrossClimate in May in 23 sizes in 15- to 17-inch rim diameters — from 185/65R15 to 225/45R17 — a range that the tire maker said covers 70 percent of the European market. Further sizes are scheduled for 2016.

The company did not disclose pricing.

Michelin said it has been developing the CrossClimate for the past three years and has road-tested it in Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Michelin claims the CrossClimate has undergone more than 3 million miles of dynamic, wear and endurance tests.