Michelin claims to have created a summer tyre for vans and light trucks that performs just as effectively in winter and is a true year-rounder.
As a consequence, risk-averse light commercial vehicle operators will no longer have to endure all the cost and complication of switching to winter tyres when the first flakes of snow fall, then back to summer tyres once the white stuff has finally melted.
Following on from the CrossClimate+ car tyre, Michelin’s Agilis CrossClimate has been able to achieve this goal by using a well thought-out combination of materials and design, says Yann Chaylard, head of the company’s van and light truck tyre development platform.
What Michelin has done is take three different synthetic rubber compounds and combine them into one tread rubber. The most suitable rubber takes the lead at the appropriate moment and makes its presence felt depending on the prevailing road conditions. The winter compound comes to the fore when it is cold; the wet profiled compound when adherence to the road surface is low; and the dry compound when the highway is hot and moisture-free.
“We’ve created intelligent rubber,” Chaylard observes.
Making a key contribution to performance is the tyre’s big, bold and distinctive V-shaped tread pattern. Constructed with two layers, the tread is designed to minimise heat transfer through the tyre.
Its blocks contain bi-directional self-locking sipes intended to provide cutting edges that bite into snow and ice. Made in France and Poland, the Agilis CrossClimate comes with 3PMSF (Three Peak Mountain Snow Flake) marking, to signify they have been performance-tested for winter conditions.
As damage resulting from repeated scuffing against kerbs kills so many van tyres prematurely, Michelin has opted to protect the newcomer with a series of Game of Thrones-type shields: 1.5mm-deep trapezoidal-style blocks that run around the shoulder and upper sidewall. Along with the rubber such features are taken from Michelin’s all-terrain military truck tyre range.
“We’ve put in the additional thickness in all the right places while ensuring that the sidewall remains flexible,” says Chaylard. “We’ve increased the resistance to scuffing by 30% as a consequence.”
The tyre’s big, bold and distinctive V-shaped tread pattern
Far from running their tyres until they are bald and illegal, many van operators err on the side of caution and take their tyres off too early, thereby losing money.
In response, Michelin has equipped the CrossClimate with a tread-wear indicator within the groove, which gives a percentage of the tread remaining. The scale counts down from 100% to 0% in 25% steps. The initial tread depth is 9.2mm when new. With 0% denoting the legal limit of 1.6mm, that gives the van owner 7.6mm of rubber to play with.
Due to be rolled out steadily to the general van-buying public from May onwards, the CrossClimate is available in 15in and 16in sizes, with a 17in on its way at some point in the future.
Chaylard says the tyre will be around 15% more expensive than a standard summer tyre, although that percentage may vary from market to market, and major fleet operators will doubtless use their purchasing clout to negotiate a better deal.
The savings the newcomer offers go a long way towards outweighing any price premium, however. It gives at least 35% more mileage than the average performance of summer, winter and all-seasons premium tyres, according to tests carried out by Dekra, the German vehicle inspection company, says Michelin. In the warmer months it has a summer tyre’s dry and wet braking capability, says Chaylard.
“You will not suffer a fuel consumption penalty,” he adds. “The rolling resistance is the same as that of a summer tyre and better than that of an ordinary winter tyre.”
And nor, as we found, does its all-round performance suffer in ice and snow.
Michelin has reduced the CrossClimate’s weight by 0.5kg compared with that of a summer tyre, giving van owners a potential payload boost of 2.0kg, or 2.5kg if you carry a spare wheel. It doesn’t sound like much, agreed, but if you happen to run a tight-on-payload supermarket home-delivery fleet, every kilo saved counts.
The CrossClimate is the result of five years of feedback from van operators in the UK, France, Germany, and Turkey, says Michelin. It involved thousands of interviews conducted by Paris-based external market research house GMV Conseil. All-seasons capability, longevity and an ability to resist damage were the key requirements that came out of that research.
Does CrossClimate perform well?
What Van? decided to find out how the tyres performed by travelling to the French Alps in winter and taking a fully laden Iveco Daily 35.130 3.5t van up the steep, twisting Col de la Bonette mountain pass. At 2,800m above sea level and 15km long, it is Europe’s highest road – although that claim is regularly disputed – and was covered with snow and the occasional patch of ice.
The road is closed to the public from mid-December to the end of February because it is deemed to be too hazardous, and is at risk of being hit by the odd minor avalanche. It is during this period that Michelin uses it for tyre testing, at temperatures as low as -15°C.
Three sizes will be on offer – 15in, 16in and 17in
Shod with 235/65/R16 C CrossClimates set to Iveco’s recommended pressures, the Daily tackled the demanding route without mishap.
There was ample grip, no wheelspin, the van handled remarkably well, and braked and steered far more effectively than we expected it to.
We then sampled an identical van on a set of Agilis Alpin winter tyres.
Was the performance delivered by the Alpins better? Yes, but not hugely so – and running on true winter tyres in the summer would have all sorts of drawbacks, not the least of them being the extent to which you would shorten their life.
We’re going to stick our neck out and state that Michelin has made a major breakthrough in van tyre technology and one that has caught much of the opposition napping. It has done so by cleverly taking a summer tyre and giving it winter capability rather than approaching the challenge from the other direction.
Big fleet operators on year-round home-delivery work and utilities that have to deploy mobile engineers whatever the weather will undoubtedly appreciate its benefits. One major utility is apparently so impressed that it has decided to specify CrossClimate tyres on all its vans from now on. Small businesses – including those that act as sub-contractors to the parcel giants and who need to keep rolling to earn sufficient money – should investigate what it has to offer too. It has all the makings of an award-winner.
What the rivals say
The response to CrossClimate from premium tyre manufacturers has been muted. Of those invited to express an opinion, only Goodyear had responded at the time of writing.
It says: “We offer an all-season van tyre and have done for many years. In fact, Goodyear invented the all-season tyre back in 1977 with the Tiempo.
“Our most recently launched all-season van and light truck tyre is the Cargo Vector 2. It is designed to maximise lateral and longitudinal traction to keep you moving all-year round and its tread grooves quickly evacuate both water and slush.
“An asymmetric pattern optimises tread stiffness and an all-weather silica compound keeps the tyre working even when temperatures drop.
“The tread pattern incorporates a high number of blades for improved traction on winter roads, and flexible centre blocks increase the number of gripping edges.”
