Amongst the many highlights of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed is the fully-electric Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance. The Porsche test vehicle is equipped with Michelin tyres that also push the boundaries of sustainability, containing no less than 53 per cent biosourced and recycled raw materials.
Sharing a few details about its 53 per cent tyre, Michelin says it achieved this level of sustainable raw materials “with no detriment to the performance and safety levels that have long been hallmarks of its competition tyres.” The sustainable raw materials within the tyres range from natural rubber and carbon black recycled from end-of-life tyres, to orange and lemon peel, pine-tree resin, sunflower oil and scrap steel.
The 53 per cent tyre arrives less than a year after Michelin unveiled a tyre containing 46 per cent sustainable materials at the Le Mans 24 Hours race. Matthieu Bonardel, director of Michelin Motorsport, describes the tyre maker’s “close work” with Porsche on the 718 Cayman GT4 ePerformance race car as “concrete evidence of the progress Michelin has made in the fields of sustainable materials and electromobility.”
Bonardel adds: “Just as it does in the FIA Formula E World Championship and motorcycling’s FIM MotoE World Cup, our involvement in the new all-electric championship alongside Porsche will enable us to accelerate the development of sustainable innovations that are ultimately accessible to all.”
Transferring technologies to road tyres
Looking beyond its appearance at Goodwood, Michelin anticipates that Porsche’s upcoming all-electric motorsport programme will provide a chance to evaluate its sustainable solutions in the extreme conditions associated with topflight racing. The tyre maker says it is “effectively determined to accelerate the development of its technologies and their carryover to production electric vehicle tyres,” while the energy transition provides Michelin with “a valuable opportunity for growth, along with a means to showcase its expertise and penchant for innovation.”
Michelin plans to make all its tyres exclusively from sustainable materials by 2050.
