ETRMA welcomes the provisional agreement on European Tyre Labelling Regulation review

In mid-November, the Green Party in the EU Parliament put out a statement on twitter saying: “tyres release more than 500,000 tonnes of microplastics into the environment?”. Stating that this means it is “time to reinvent the wheel”, the green party added: “Yesterday [13 November] we fought hard and we managed to convince the EU to label tyre abrasion in order to tackle plastic pollution”. With this in mind, Tyres & Accessories asked ETRMA what the pan-European tyre industry is adding to the discussion.

In response, ETRMA stated that it has followed the inter-institutional legislative process on the review of the 2009 Tyre Labelling Regulation and welcomes that the new text will address shortcomings of the existing regulation: the lack of market uptake of high-graded tyres and low market surveillance activities in EU Member States:

“Six years after the tyre label’s implementation, ETRMA supports the commitment and efforts by the European Institutions to pursue a new Tyre Labelling Regulation, which promotes industry innovation and benefits consumers by increasing consumer awareness of the tyre label and strengthening market surveillance and enforcement in EU Member States.

“The tyre label is an important instrument to inform both consumers and professional users on the fuel efficiency, wet grip and external rolling noise performance of the individual tyre, but the slow market uptake of high-grade tyres, as demonstrated by the European Commission’s impact assessment and the ETRMA-commissioned Lizeo Study, indicates that limited awareness surrounding the label persists and that the label system needs to establish itself further to deliver its full potential.”

ETRMA therefore welcomes the inclusion of improved surveillance through “sanctions and penalties, increasing the visibility of the label and introducing stronger obligations of Member States”.

Further, the Product Information Database should strengthen the information chain between tyre manufacturers and authorities and a renewal of the label’s appearance to also include a QR code, as well as the logos indicating if the tyre is for use in snow/ice conditions.

ETRMA Secretary General, Fazilet Cinaralp commented: “The review is a positive step towards an ambitious, forward-looking Tyre Labelling Regulation. The European tyre industry particularly recognises the benefits of the tyre label in creating healthy competition between manufacturers to produce the highest-performing tyres and informing consumers.”

Tread abrasion test

ETRMA also agrees with the European Commission’s commitment to the development of a suitable and reliable test method to measure tyre tread abrasion before assessing the feasibility of adding this information to the tyre label. The process is still in its infancy and needs to be completed before any measure can be introduced in this – or other – regulations.

On a standard test method for tyre abrasion, Cinaralp concluded: “The European tyre industry is fully engaged in the environmental challenges of tyres including the need for the development of a reliable test method to measure abrasion performances, a work already initiated by the industry. Our ambitions are high and we remain devoted to provide technical solutions that respond to societal needs.”