Michelin sees motorsport as an indispensable, life-size, high-tech laboratory for the incubation of innovative new solutions that stand to shape sustainability and provide safer, cleaner and more efficient mobility for everyone.
Michelin’s involvement in the FIM MotoE World Cup fits perfectly with this vision since it accelerates the development of sustainable solutions for the benefit of the broadest public possible, while continuing to deliver excellence in terms of grip, stability, resilience and, ultimately, optimal safety for all road-users.
Today, the briefs Michelin’s development experts work to place the same emphasis on sustainability as they do on the performance-related parameters traditionally associated with tyres.
Sustainable materials account for between 33 and 40 percent of the content of Michelin’s new MotoE tyres.
Earlier this year, Michelin announced its intention to manufacture all its tyres using sustainable materials* by 2050, with the interim target of reaching the threshold of 40 percent sustainable materials Group-wide by 2030, in line with the Michelin In Motion plan.
In terms of its FIM MotoE World Cup programme, Michelin Motorsport is well on the way to achieving its objective for 2030, since the proportion of sustainable materials used to make its rear tyres for the 2021 series has already reached 40 percent, while the same figure for its front MotoE tyres stands at 33 percent.
MOTORSPORT
A wide variety of bio-sourced and recycled materials are employed for the production of Michelin’s MotoE tyres, including:
• Orange and lemon peel,
• Pine resin,
• Sunflower oil,
• Hevea sap,
• Worn truck and car tyres,
• Scrap steel.
The increase in the proportion of bio-sourced and recycled materials that go into
tyres means that 4.6 tonnes of sustainable materials will be used in the course of the 2021 series. That’s equivalent to:
The weight of 18 electric motorcycles,
71 times the bodyweight of Marc Marquez,
The weight of 13,143 Margherita pizzas,
The weight of 31 velociraptors,
And the weight of 30 Hobie Cat catamarans.
And not only do Michelin’s latest MotoE tyres have a smaller impact on the planet’s resources, but they are also more competitive: track testing carried out in March and April confirmed that the new, more environmentally-friendly range delivers faster lap times, as well as quicker warm-up performance.
Enviro’s unique process for recovering carbon black from end-of-life tyres
The increase in the proportion of sustainable materials used to make Michelin’s MotoE tyres was achieved thanks to the incorporation of carbon black recovered from end-of-life tyres.
The unique process developed by Michelin’s partner company Enviro uses pyrolysis to transform worn tyres and recover materials like carbon black which can then be re-employed for the production of new tyres.
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