CETRO 

Committee of European Tyre Retail Organisations
 

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Tyre pressure

Several reports from almost every Member State show that 50% of all motorists drive with an average under-pressure of at least 25%. The translation of this percentage into terms of road safety and fuel consumption has persuaded Member States to implement initiatives such as the annual TyreCheck.

There are two different types of check. One is repressive and is carried out with the help of the law enforcement agencies, as in the United Kingdom and Finland, while the other is preventive and is financed by industry, national authorities and specialists.

Recently, with the help of NOVEM, the Dutch national energy agency, financial support was requested from the SAVE programme to co-finance national tyre checks in nine member states, which is important for the long-term survival of this relatively new programme. The request submitted for the years 2003 and 2004 was not granted for reasons unknown to us.

Insufficient tyre pressure has major effects on fuel consumption and therefore on CO2 emissions. The conservative figures used by NOVEM show a potential CO2 reduction of 192.5 kTon/year in The Netherlands. When translated to European (EU15) levels, with a total of approx. 173 million cars (source: Eurostat 1999), the CO2 reduction is potentially 5.2 mTon/year. Every year.

The question of tyre pressure definitely requires greater attention, but we do realise that communicating a simple issue such as the importance of tyre pressure is difficult. We would therefore ask the Commission to introduce directives on tyre pressure and to stress to Member States the importance of introducing the check into regular vehicle inspections (MOT,TÜV, APK, etc.). How can the braking system or the car lights be inspected without proper tyre pressure?

Positive side-effects are too numerous to mention, but it is clear that there is much to gain:

  • reduced fuel consumption, one to two full tanks a year.

  • reduction  in CO2 emissions

  • durability

  • life cycle improvement

  • improvement of road-holding properties and therefore greater road safety

  • shorter and more stable braking distances

  • reduction of noise emission.

CETRO supports the initiatives of car manufacturers to introduce dashboard display functions signalling low tyre pressure. (Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems).

CETRO asks the Commission to support a Europe-wide programme for the duration of at least five years to improve tyre awareness.