Michelin's Uptis takes to streets in France

CLERMONT FERRAND, France—Uptis, simply, continues to deliver.

French delivery company La Poste will fit some of its delivery vehicles with Michelin's nonpneumatic Uptis tires. By next year, roughly 40 postal delivery vans serving the Lesquin, Valenciennes and Douai sectors, in the Hauts-de-France region of Northern France will be running on Uptis.

Earlier this year, DHL delivery vehicles fitted with Uptis tires took to the streets in Singapore. By the end of the year, at least 50 will be fitted with the airless tires there.

Together, these collaborations mark a major step forward in Uptis' development, and Michelin notes that it is the only airless tire in the world to travel on open roads, under real conditions—and it does so on three continents. Collectively, Uptis has logged nearly 2 million real-world miles, Michelin said, and it is carrying the tire maker closer to its aim of developing a fully sustainable tire by 2050.

"The Michelin Uptis tire is a major innovation in the tire sector and is a key step in the development of a fully sustainable tire by 2050," Bruno De Feraudy, director of OEM activities for Michelin, said in a statement. "It demonstrates Michelin's capacity to innovate in favor of a safer mobility that is kinder to the environment."

Uptis indeed represents a big step forward for Michelin, not only in terms of sustainability, but the tire also showcases the company's engineering ingenuity, bringing together companywide expertise and more than 50 patents related to tire structure and high-tech materials.

For La Poste, the tires do represent opportunities for both safety and sustainability. But they also represent something more: Efficiency.

Uptis' puncture-proof design—a combined tire and wheel structure that calls on materials to perform the functions that air traditionally does in a pneumatic tire—allows vehicles to stay on roads longer. The tires' ability to resist punctures removes many of the headaches and much of the downtime that comes with air pressure-related losses and failures, cutting down on tires being removed from service prematurely. Moreover, Uptis' nonpneumatic design address underinflation, which ultimately helps extend vehicle range and fuel economy as well as prevent uneven wear, which could lead to prematurely scrapping tires.

And for La Poste, all of that adds up to environmental, time and financial savings.

"We deliver letters and parcels throughout France, six days a week, with postmen and women who travel the equivalent of 50 times the circumference of the earth every day," Philippe Dorge, deputy managing director of the La Poste Group in charge of the Services-Letters-Parcels branch, said in a statement. "We need reliable vehicles that offer total safety on the road, while limiting our environmental footprint. We are expecting performance and total peace of mind from the revolutionary Michelin Uptis tires."

Michelin estimates 12 percent of tires are scrapped early because of punctures or irreparable air loss damage. Another 8 percent are scrapped early due to improper wear. Because Uptis is puncture-proof and has no air pressure to maintain, it could potentially reduce prematurely scrapped tires by as much as 20 percent—or about 200 million tires annually.

Uptis' development traces back to Tweel, the industry's first modern airless tire concept that found success in the off-road segment. And while Michelin continues to innovate and bring to market Uptis models that serve industries from lawn and garden to construction, it remains focused on bringing nonpneumatic technology to the passenger vehicle segment.