Tire Manufacturer of the Year, Innovation Award : two major awards for Michelin

How does Michelin maintain the level of innovation and development that has clearly impressed the judges for another consecutive year ?

Innovation is part of Michelin's DNA, it is anchored in our history. Today, when environmental issues are at the heart of every debate, Michelin remains more than ever faithful to its pioneering spirit, not letting things that are considered impossible stop us, but developing and pursuing our ideas for safety and sustainability. One excellent example for this is our push towards tyre products that deliver a Long Lasting Performance. At Michelin we design tyres that deliver high level of safety not when new, but also after years and thousands of kilometers on the road. The conviction for the need to test tyres in the worn state is now shared by the industry and will become mandatory by the regulation in 2024 in Europe.

Over the last 12 months, what would you point to as the most significant developments in the company's continuing growth?

If we want to talk about growth, the tire business is shifting from selling more towards selling more sustainable products. This reality pushes us to move into new territories of growth by relying on our historical know-how in the field of tires like the work we are doing in high-tech materials for always cleaner solutions (Some examples are BioButterfly, to produce butadiene using ethanol derived from biomass and Symbio, to develop, produce and sell hydrogen fuel cell systems for light vehicles, utility vehicles, trucks). And in the field of services and solutions like the optimization of the fleet management (more than 1 million vehicles were connected at the end of 2019).

Those projects are part of the VISION concept, which illustrates Michelin's sustainable development model, the feasibility of which we regularly prove. As recently with the Michelin UPTIS prototype, the puncture-proof tire.

What trends do you think will prove central to work at Michelin over the next 12 months?

Continue to realize our vision of “all-sustainable”. Everything we do must now meet three inseparable criteria: our respect for People, without whom no transformation is possible; our Profit, which is a measure of our longevity and investments for the future; the respect for the Planet and its inhabitants, which are at the heart of our mission. Michelin is engaged with the Industry to continue to increase scientific knowledge on TRWP and develop a standardized abrasion test method.  Of course, Michelin continues to invest in R&D to develop tyres with higher performances while needing less but high tech materials, and moreover limiting emissions. We will regularly demonstrate our commitment to this vision with new and concrete evidence. And to get a glimpse of new projects in progress, meet us at Movin’On in Montreal at the beginning of June.