How Michelin is using innovation to pursue its sustainability goals

This advertising content was produced in collaboration between Vox Creative and our sponsor, without involvement from Vox Media editorial staff. In 1891, douard Michelin did something remarkable: he created the first removable pneumatic tire. Unlike previous tires that were glued onto wheels, this detachable design allowed for easier and speedier repairs and set the precedent

This advertising content was produced in collaboration between Vox Creative and our sponsor, without involvement from Vox Media editorial staff.

In 1891, Édouard Michelin did something remarkable: he created the first removable pneumatic tire. Unlike previous tires that were glued onto wheels, this detachable design allowed for easier and speedier repairs — and set the precedent for decades of innovation that would come to define Michelin as a company. 

From creating the first steel-cased tire in 1937 to a puncture-proof tire in 2019, Michelin has continued to push the boundaries of what is possible — and the more than 130-year-old company is hardly done innovating. Today, Michelin has turned its focus to sustainability, both on earth, on the seas, and in outer space.  

Forging longer-lasting tires 

Michelin tires are already known for their safety and performance, so now, the company is turning its focus to sustainability. “The longer tires last on the road, the fewer will be found in landfills across the country,” Russell Shepherd, technical communications director, Michelin North America, Inc., says.

A suite of 27 innovations in tire construction help Michelin tires last even longer, without compromising safety. Several of those advancements came through Michelin’s previous relationship with Formula E, the racing series championship for electric cars. “At Michelin, we use motorsports as our research and development lab, with technology born on the track and brought to the street,” Shepherd says. “Not just to make better racing tires, but to make better passenger tires, too — ones that perform better and last longer.” 

Extending a tire’s longevity is especially crucial in electric vehicles: Generally speaking, the better a tire performs, the longer range an electric vehicle can travel between charges. Michelin’s MaxTouch Construction technology helps lower the rolling resistance of a tire on the road — a key change in the way Michelin’s tires are engineered, according to Shepherd. “This technology maximizes the tire contact patch with the road while evenly distributing braking, acceleration, and cornering forces. By combining these aspects, this technology helps extend tread life and reduces wear, which increases the life of the tire,” he says. 

Plus, creating tires that last for longer means less frequent tire changes, reducing the overall amount of material used in a tire’s lifecycle — one of Michelin’s goals. “This means less material used for every mile driven and fewer tires to be recycled or reused in other functions at the end of life,” Shepherd says.  

Building a wheel that works on the moon

Longevity is also a major component of another Michelin innovation, albeit one a bit farther from home. Michelin is currently developing a wheel for a lunar rover. It’s not the first time Michelin has set its sights on space: The company partnered with NASA on 135 NASA space shuttle missions from 1981 to 2011, and wants to be an active participant in space exploration that could one day see a permanent settlement on the moon, according to Cyrille Roget, innovation and scientific communication director for Michelin Group. 

Developing a tire that could perform on a lunar rover is no small feat. Robert Radulescu — technical fellow for the Michelin Group — says the tire would have to perform in extreme temperatures, ranging from below -240 degrees Celsius to more than 100 degrees Celsius (-400 degrees Fahrenheit to 212 degrees Fahrenheit). “The lunar rover will need to withstand very harsh environmental conditions, be extremely energy efficient, ensure mobility on difficult terrain and have a reasonable longevity,” he says. “To respond to these requirements, the wheel will need to be manufactured out of high-tech materials that cannot be of elastomeric nature, reduce considerably the resistance to motion through very low contact pressures, provide sufficient traction capabilities and ensure reliability over a large number of cycles through an innovative structure construction.” 

Michelin’s interest in the lunar wheel is not just about space exploration, either. Roget says the technologies Michelin is developing for lunar tires could very well impact tires here on earth, helping the company create a tire that performs even better, more safely, and more sustainably in the future. 

Harnessing the wind on commercial ships

Making commercial transportation more sustainable has also become a focus for Michelin — specifically in maritime shipping. The company’s WISAMO from Michelin project — which stands for Wing Sail Mobility — centers on an automated, fully retractable, and inflatable wingsail that can be attached to both new and already existing ships to harness wind power and attempt to help lower ships’ fuel needs and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Gildas Quemeneur, executive director of WISAMO, says WISAMO’s goal is to eventually lead the way to a more sustainable global supply chain. “WISAMO’s revolutionary design aims to enable a ship to have a positive impact on the environment by lowering greenhouse emissions up to 20 percent for an existing vessel, even more than 50 percent for a newly built one,” he says. “Our WISAMO solution is fully automated and remotely retractable to adapt to heavy weather conditions. It’s very secure and easy to use, and it can be installed during or after the vessel’s conception.”

The inflatable wingsail has already been tested on French sailor Michel Desjoyeaux’s sailing boat. It was first showcased in 2019, but has been used consistently since 2021. Michelin plans to send the first commercial deliveries to merchant vessels in 2026. 

The common thread between these three seemingly disparate projects? Innovation. Really, that’s the one constant across Michelin’s long history: a culture that’s constantly developing new ideas and technologies to create solutions. This time, Michelin has just expanded its focus beyond tires alone — to a more sustainable future.

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