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It has been announced by the EU that tyre manufacturers will be obliged to label tyres from 2012 in relation to their environmental performance. The labels will show the tyres operation in terms of fuel efficiency, wet grip and external rolling noise. This will then allow the tyre to be labelled on an A to G scale for its environmental performance. The information will be available on a similar basis to the stickers which are displayed on cars in showrooms. The estimate is this could save up to 4 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.
I applaud this initiative but I do also have some reservations about it too. Unfortunately most vehicles on the roads are not managed by cost and safety conscious fleet managers. As a result the car owner will one day decide that new tyres are required, usually for one of the following reasons:
The driver will go off to the local fast fit centre and not really knowing much about tyres they will be sold whatever the person behind the counter suggests. Generally the driver will want to fit the cheapest that they can get away with. After all a tyre is a tyre is a tyre, isn't it? Well no it's not actually.
Would it not be more helpful if tyre prices (and vehicles for that matter) could actually be displayed as whole life costs? This would then give much more useful information to the purchaser allowing them to make an informed decision rather than just plumping for the cheapest. The whole life cost could contain the necessary environmental information so buyers understand the total impact of their purchase.
Generally any tyre purchase is a distress purchase. No one wants to spend hard earned money on a new set of tyres but unless the topic is taken a little more seriously and further education is provided then the work that the EU has proposed above will be lost on the average punter.
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