Michelin: Clarivate innovation honour “goes to all of our global teams”

Analytics firm Clarivate has published its 100 Top Innovators 2022 list, and several familiar names are present. Continental debuts as a new entrant, whilst Bridgestone and Michelin both return to the list for a fourth time. Michelin shares that it received this recognition from Clarivate during yesterday’s R&D forum at its technology centre near Clermont-Ferrand, France.

A global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation, Clarivate uses its methodology to identify organisations at the pinnacle of the global innovation landscape by measuring excellence in this parameter. To determine its leading 100 companies, Clarivate analysts use informatic techniques to compare 50 million innovation ideas, across thousands of baselines, through billions of calculations. The Top 100 Global Innovators 2022 ranking rewards innovation as a whole as well as the organisations from 12 countries and regions that it names.

Tremendous challenges ahead

“Global inventive activity today is far higher, more diverse and more complex than a decade ago, when we launched Top 100 Global Innovators,” states Ed White, Clarivate’s chief analyst and vice-president, Intellectual Property and Innovation. “The Top 100 Global Innovators 2022 illustrates innovation excellence. We would like to congratulate this year’s Top 100 companies and we are delighted that Michelin is included in these rankings. They demonstrate the capabilities, consistency and creativity with which new value and novel ideas enrich the world.”

“There are tremendous challenges ahead, which are also opportunities for us to explore,” adds Eric Vinesse, research & development director and member of the Michelin Executive Committee. “These include the electrification of the automotive industry, the challenges associated with our aim to use 100 per cent sustainable materials by 2050 and innovations linked to our activities beyond tyres. This spirit pervades the Group’s entire R&D community. It is a firm belief and this prize goes to all of our global teams.”

Innovation always been a central focus

With an investment of 682 million euros in 2021 and the ‘Michelin in Motion’ plan to use 100 per cent sustainable materials by 2050, the company says “innovation has always been the Group’s central focus.” Elaborating on this claim, Michelin points out that it has developed solutions throughout its history that have changed daily lives and offered greater mobility: Innovations the company claims include the first detachable bicycle tyre, the invention of radial tyres and the ‘green’ tyre. Michelin says further innovations are “in the pipeline,” including airless tyres.

With 11,627 active patents in the world, 247 patents filed in 2021 and 6,000 people working in research and development, Michelin is developing technologies which will facilitate the achievement of its ambitions for 2030: In tyres: by innovating more for the electric market, materials innovations to reach the goal of using 100 per cent sustainable materials; around tyres: with initiatives in the area of connected mobility; beyond tyres: by working in healthcare, hydrogen, metal 3D printing, high-tech materials and new uses.