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Auto majors' bid for sustainable mobility

Challenge Bibendum of Michelin is the annual forum to focus on issues relating to clean, safe cars of today and tomorrow

MOBILITY IS indispensable for the development of societies. However, there are many questions surrounding the sustainability of the world's current transport systems. Energy and road safety are two of the major issues, and they are further complicated by the fact that more and more people will be living in cities in the years to come, and there will be twice as many vehicles on the road as there are now, by 2030.

The only worldwide event of its kind, Challenge Bibendum is the forum where the big players in the automotive world come together every year to debate issues relating to sustainable mobility — issues that revolve around the clean, safe cars of today and tomorrow.

Created in 1998 by Michelin, the world leader in the tyre industry, the event (and the tests that accompany it) is an opportunity to gauge the progress made in a wide range of areas including fuel consumption, pollutant emissions, acceleration, braking, road handling, safety and design. This year's Challenge Bibendum, held in Paris, was in line with its goals: How to resolve the issues of energy challenge, urban mobility and road safety.

Growth trends

As an essential factor in economic and social development, the transport of goods and people has been in constant progression since the 1950s. According to projections of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD — Mobility 2030), the number of passenger vehicles on the roads in the world will reach 1.3 billion in 2030. The distances travelled by the populations will increase by nearly 50 per cent between 2000 and 2030. Over the same period, truck freight is forecast to increase by 75 per cent. The increase in mobility of people will be particularly strong in developing countries: in China and Latin America, projections indicate an average rise of 3 per cent per year over the same period.

These global figures conceal large geographical disparities in access to mobility: in 2000, according to the WBCSD, the average distance covered annually by a North American inhabitant was more than 12 times the distance travelled by an African. More than 75 per cent of the motorised vehicles are in developed countries. Moreover, access to mobility remains difficult for the poorest people, senior citizens or people with special needs.

Rising accidents

The increase in road accidents is a primary preoccupation: 50 million people are injured and 1.2 million killed on the roads each year, more than 85 per cent of them in developing countries. The situation there is getting worse, while it is stable or improving in developed countries. The primary victims there are the most vulnerable people — pedestrians and cyclists. The European Road Safety Charter is committed to reduce the number of deaths on European roads by 50 per cent between now and 2010.

A further consequence of increase in road traffic relates to the environment: locally polluting emissions, greenhouse gases, use of fossil fuels and noise pollution. The International Energy Agency's (IEA) main projection scenarios forecast that transport related oil consumption could double in the next 25 to 30 years. In 1950, less than 30 per cent of the world's population lived in an urban environment. According to the World Bank, the figure will exceed 50 per cent by 2008, mainly due to changes in developing countries, where rapid urbanisation and motorisation, combined with often inadequate infrastructure, are leading to chronic road traffic congestion. Further, rising oil prices, political uncertainties in oil supplies and the foreseeable increase in world demand — particularly with the emergence of India and China as new powers — are encouraging many countries to look for other sources of energy.

Directions for action

In 2000, 12 corporate members of the WBCSD — BP, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Michelin, Nissan, Norsk Hydro, Renault, Shell, Toyota and Volkswagen — joined hands on the Sustainable Mobility Project. Their goal was to carry out an assessment of mobility throughout the world, analyse the challenges facing the sector and identify the directions to take in order to face up to these challenges. The result of this collective work was the 'Mobility 2030' report, which puts forward indications for reflection and action toward more sustainable mobility. The first practical result was worldwide action on safety within the `Global Road Safety Partnership' (GRSP), an initiative launched by the World Bank and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to promote and coordinate road safety improvement actions in developing countries.

In 1998, Bibendum, the Michelin Man who is the company's mascot, turned 100. Michelin created Challenge Bibendum that year, to show that the automobile industry is working towards sustainable mobility and that it already has the technologies needed to reduce pollution and improve safety, without compromising mobility. The challenge is to reconcile the progress that the automobile represents, with the values of freedom, development and respect for the planet and its inhabitants.

"When I say sustainable mobility, I am talking about mobility that is cleaner, safer and more fuel efficient, capable of making continuous progress0 even in a post-oil world,'' said Michel Rollier, Managing Partner, Michelin, adding, "The spirit of Challenge Bibendum is simply about respecting facts. It is also about a fierce desire to move forward without delay. It is the conviction that there is not just a single solution but a range of solutions that should be developed by creating powerful synergies among researchers, manufacturers, users and legislators.''

Just eight years after its debut, Challenge Bibendum is internationally recognised as the world's premier event in support of sustainable road mobility. It is not just intended to provide solutions, but rather to spotlight the most significant advances in sustainable mobility and helps people to understand the technologies involved, through practical demonstrations and to see how each technology fits in the overall picture. Challenge Bibendum 2006 addressed three key issues: the energy challenge for tomorrow's road transport; advanced technologies to support increasingly urban road mobility; technology and road safety.

The Michelin way

As the sole point of contact between the vehicle and the road, tyres play a key role in road safety: grip, road handling and reducing braking distances are key matters of concern. "Whether during the manufacturing of tyres or the development of new product ranges, safety is the number one priority,'' Michelin states. The company contributes to improved road safety through actions in its own domain of tyres and also by working with other companies and public bodies (in the European Union) to address the underlying causes of accidents.

Michelin has made energy issues one of its prime concerns and a cornerstone of its research and development programmes. Among many other initiatives, reducing rolling resistance is a major challenge that the company has undertaken. As the wheel turns, the tyre compresses to hug the road. As its structure is deformed, the components heat up and some of the energy transmitted by the engine is lost. Rolling resistance is this energy lost through the tyres, as opposed to energy lost in propelling the car forward. The reason for Michelin's commitment is simple — tyres play a vital role in a vehicle's energy balance. Tyres account for 20 per cent of a modern car's fuel consumption and up to 30 per cent of a heavy truck's, which means that for passenger cars, one tank of fuel in five is needed to overcome rolling resistance. In real-world terms, rolling resistance can be likened to driving constantly up a one per cent incline. Lowering this imaginary incline is what reducing rolling resistance is all about and represents a major focus of Michelin's research.

Low rolling resistance technology offers considerable potential for improving fuel economy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. "We are going to cut rolling resistance in half,'' said Didier Miraton, President, World Wide Research and Technology and Member of Group Executive Council, Michelin. "At Michelin, we are betting that in 2030 our tyres won't consume a litre of gas more than today, even though there will be twice as many drivers on the road. That's our bet...... and our challenge.''

OOMMEN A. NINAN

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