MEP's committee strengthens moves towards phasing out energy inefficient tyres

Wed 10 December 2008 View all news

The internal market committee of the European Parliament has breathed new life into the Commission's draft directive designed to speed the introduction of more energy efficient and quieter tyres. Proposed legislation would mean that the noisiest and least energy efficient tyres will have to be phased out and withdrawn from sale.

Proposals in the regulation hold the promise of cutting up to 5% of a vehicle's CO2 emissions by reducing the rolling resistance of tyres and also cutting noise levels by up to half.  

ENDS reports that the vote effectively overturns one by MEPs on the industry committee in November which tried to weaken the proposed standards. The one weakening in the internal market committee vote was to put back the deadline for stopping the sale of the worst tyres from 2018 to 2019.

However, MEPs backed up the Commission's proposal by calling for tyre pressure monitoring systems to have a greater degree of accuracy than originally proposed and to ensure that systems are present to warn drivers of pressure changes that increase fuel consumption.

The draft legislation now goes to ministers.

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