Michelin pushes limits with 63% sustainable tire at Le Mans

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France—Winning is relative.

Oh, there have been plenty of wins—the decisive kind that come from competition. But there are others, too, the kinds that come from innovation.

Since 1923, Michelin has been innovating and designing tires for ultimate competitions, the 24-hour kind hosted each year in Le Mans, France. The races that push the limits of drivers, their teams, the vehicles and the tires they race on.

But before this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans competition even began, Michelin recorded a few important wins. In this milestone year—the 100th for Michelin—the tire maker pushed the limits of its sustainability and technology with the unveiling of a 63-percent sustainable materials tire.

It's a major step forward in the tire maker's journey to fully sustainable.

"This tire," the company said in a statement, "fits perfectly with Michelin's resolve to employ sustainable materials across its range with a Group target of using biosourced, recycled or renewable raw materials exclusively for its entire catalogue by 2050."

This is the third straight year that the tire maker has rolled out a racing tire with higher sustainable materials content. In 2021, during 24 Hours of Le Mans, Michelin introduced a 46-percent sustainable materials tire. During last year's race, the tire maker showed off a 53-percent biobased and recycled content tire.

Over the years, Michelin has credited its materials science scope for the sustainability milestones, pointing to the uses of natural rubber, citrus rinds, sunflower oil and pine resins as well as recycled content such as carbon black, steel and aluminum.

For the latest iteration of the sustainable materials tire, Michelin leans into that same kind of materials expertise. And it uses recycled carbon black made from pyrolysis processes developed by Scandinavian Enviro Systems A.B., a company in which Michelin has a majority stake.

"We know that our recovered carbon black is of the highest quality and this shows that Enviro's materials can be used even in one of the world's most prestigious and demanding motorsport races," Enviro CEO Thomas Sorensson said in a statement. "This is, of course, a feather in our cap but also promising for a future where recycled materials and circular methods will play an increasingly important role."

These successes have potential for even greater impacts, because they help to inform and guide the development of tires that are put to the test every day on neighborhood roads, city streets and even some of the paths less traveled.

Because once Michelin puts some of its biggest ideas to the test on the racetrack, it can bring those technologies to the tires it rolls out for tomorrow's vehicle space. One that is more sustainable both in propulsion—with electrification—and expectations.

"At Michelin, we are continuing to prepare for an auto industry dominated by EVs and heightened consumer expectations around sustainability, and we have set ambitious goals to exceed them," Alexis Garcin, Michelin North America Inc. chairman and president, said in a June 9 LinkedIn post. "This new tire shows that while we are breaking records on the track, #WeRaceForChange across the industry, continuing our legacy of innovation."