Developing a benchmark winter product

As you can imagine safety is a key concern for tyre buying consumers all year round, but it is an even more critical influencing factor in the winter months. However, what is interesting to learn from the Michelin research behind the recent Pilot Alpin 4 launch, is that the very same consumers that actively sought out expensive cars that allow them to drive towards their performance limits and tyres that allow them to safely feel the thrill of this experience have a different view when the weather’s cold. In the summer months it seems that it is all systems go, with handling and performance (which Michelin sums up as “control”) the order of the day. In the colder months what Michelin terms “mobility” is amongst the most desired characteristics. The same consumer that was impatient to hit the limits in summer is impatient to hit the road while other drivers are stuck at home in winter.

Michelin claims that the resulting product stands apart from its current competitors as something of a reference tyre in the segment, according to independently conducted TUV Sud tyre tests. Some the highlights of these tests include that it brakes two metres shorter on wet roads on average, compared with its main competitors in Europe (when braking from 80-0 km/h). These results were achieved through test conducted by TÜV SÜD in 2012 on 245/40 R 18 V tyres available and purchased in the European market in November 2011. Similarly, the MICHELIN Latitude Alpin LA2 was rated highest overall in terms of braking, traction, handling and grip when cornering on wet, icy and snow-covered surfaces, compared with its main competitors. Once again these tests were conducted by TÜV SÜD in 2012 on 245/40 R 18 V tyres available and purchased in the European market in November 2011.

Furthermore, Michelin consumer research reportedly shows that when people change to winter tyres only a relatively small percentage of these go back to prior summer tyre only habits. Michelin, a company known for its pursuit of product excellence – even if that means a higher than peers product cost – is particularly keen on being head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to winter tyres. The thinking is that that a positive first experience of winter tyres helps build a winter tyre market rather than just win a single winter tyre sale. “We did not sacrifice or compromise any characteristic in the development of this latest tyre,” Vincent Rousset-Rouviere head of Michelin car and van tyres for Europe told journalists at the launch of the two new tyres in Riga, Latvia.

Of the two tread patterns that the new Alpin (PA4) is available in, cars such as the latest Porsche 911 and the forthcoming Boxter and Cayman, which are being debuted at the Geneva motor show as I write this article, Michelin will only produce N-rated Porsche-orientated tyres in the directional pattern.

Directional patterns have somewhat fallen out of favour when it comes to the design of summer tyres, but they still have something to offer in winter conditions where the mechanical traction this shape offers is appealing. Generally speaking though it is something of a swings and roundabouts exercise which is makes more a difference in rear wheel drive vehicles (like Porches) that feature different front and rear sizes.  According to the experts asymmetric patterns offer less edges but more sipes, while directional tread design offers more edges and less sipes.

The new Lattitude Alpin (LA2)

When designing the new Lattitude Alpin (LA2) tyre Michelin’s development team focused on tyre architecture, the tread pattern and rubber composition. According to the company, the tyre’s robustness has been adapted for SUV use and it delivers superior handling, even when carrying heavy loads. It is also engineered to be resistant to sidewall impact. 

The tread features more biting edges and sipes than the previous-generation tire. The 2012 version of the Michelin Latitude Alpin for example has up to 40 per cent more biting edges and 75 per cent more sipes than its predecessor. 

As with the Alpin PA4, Michelin put the Latitude LA2 was also put through its paces at TUV Sud where it was rated highest overall in terms of braking, traction, handling and grip when cornering on wet, icy and snow-covered surfaces, compared with its main competitors. Once again these tests were conducted by TÜV SÜD in 2012 on 245/40 R 18 V tyres available and purchased in the European market in November 2011 as well as some 235/65 R 17 H tyres bought at the same time.

As different as the sports cars and SUVs sporting the PA4 and the LA2 may be there are a number of shared technologies in the two ranges of winter tyres.

For example, Michelin Group’s R&D teams used what they call the Ridge-n-Flex collection of technology concepts in both cases. Ridge-n-Flex refers to the cluster of different approaches necessary to give the new tyres both the necessary rigidity and stability to perform at the highest levels. This includes a heavily grooved tread pattern for greater grip on winter roads, interlaced elements known as StabiliGrip sipes and flexible rubber in the form of HelioCompound 3G. 

The StabiliGrip sipes are three-dimensional, deeply grooved and placed at variable angles. This means more edges as the tyre wears, while allowing the different tread blocks to interlock in order to better stabilise the driving experience. 

In addition the tyre features a new rubber compound featuring so-called “next generation” technology. HelioCompound 3G is, as the name suggests, Michelin’s third generation of the silica-based rubber compound featuring a patented combination of over 100 ingredients including sunflower oil, for better softness in cold weather.  Both of Michelin’s new high-performance winter tyres use this rubber concept.

According to Michelin upgrading the compound of its latest high-performance winter tyres really separates the wheat from the chaff in terms of performance. For example, it is relatively easy to design a tyre that is strong in one particular winter environment. But winter tyres have to be able to perform on dry cold tarmac, cold wet tarmac, icy tarmac, snowy tarmac, slushy tarmac, tarmac with black ice, sheet ice, fresh snow, compacted snow, frozen snow, ice on snow and then the melting frozen conditions. So it is considerably more difficult to spread out high performance characteristics across the differing winter scenarios that motorists are likely to meet. Michelin representatives report that, according to the TUV Sud data, its new winter tyres are as much as 6 percentage points ahead of the average of its nearest competitors at the time the test were held.

And this is emblematic of what Michelin means by making its latest UHP and SUV tyres benchmarks in the market. They are, according to the company, tyres that now only lead in one or two tests or environment but instead right across the board.