The days of nails in your tires and bills to fix the tire pressure warning system may be numbered. Michelin
MGDDF,
is testing airless tires in real-world conditions.
No, you won’t see them on American roads this summer. But the tires are about to become a common site in France. La Poste, France’s equivalent of the U.S. Postal Service, has begun equipping mail delivery vans with Michelin’s Uptis-brand airless tires. (That’s Unique Puncture-proof Tire System, Michelin says, unaware of how abbreviations work).
The tires, Michelin says, eliminate “problems linked to tire pressure and punctures.” That’s a big factor for fleet operators like postal services, which “can reduce downtime and maintenance operations.”
Flexible spokes
Instead of air pressure, the tires use flexible spokes for support, much like those used on moon rovers in the past (General Motors
GM,
believe it or not, built those). Down on Earth, they’re reinforced with glass fibers to provide support.
That means a puncture doesn’t do significant damage to them. Michelin says that alone could reduce the number of scrapped tires by at least 20%. It could also eliminate the need to carry spare tires.
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Coming to tire stores in the U.S., someday
But you and I, as regular drivers, have downtime and maintenance operations, too. How long until we see airless tire options at tire stores?
GM could play a role in that. The company began testing Uptis tires on a fleet of Chevrolet Bolt EVs at its Michigan proving grounds in 2021. GM and Michelin together set a target date for making a commercially available tire by the end of 2024.
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But you’ll likely see them on mail trucks and delivery vans before you can put them in your driveway.
For now, Michelin says, it’s focused on developing the tires for “light truck fleets intended for professional use, and particularly deliveries.”
This story originally ran on KBB.com.
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