Michelin embracing future technologies to drive future growth

Make no mistake, Michelin makes tires.

That has been the heart and soul of the company since 1889, and that won't be changing any time soon, even if the company changes a little along the way.

The world's largest tiremaker has established a long-term vision for its business that is built on three pillars: people, profit and planet. In the decades ahead, Michelin intends to grow by establishing key partnerships and making strategic investments in technologies, materials and developments that drive not just the tire industry, but sustainable mobility overall.

That journey may connect Michelin to plastics recycling, cargo ship sails, hydrogen electric vehicle charging stations and even the medical industry. And while some of those investments may seem unconventional, each one comes back to a simple premise: responsibility.

"When we say Michelin is in motion today, we mean that Michelin is in motion for our customers, we are in motion for people and also for our environment," Alexis Garcin, chairman and president of Michelin North America Inc., told Rubber & Plastics News, a sister publication of Plastics News. "Because what we deeply believe at Michelin is that we should not oppose the economical growth and the mobility of the people because motion is life. We should not oppose that to the protection of the environment. It is not either or. It is with."

In the years ahead, Garcin said, you'll see Michelin make investments in companies, technologies, products and materials that push the tiremaker — and other companies across a range of industries — closer to carbon neutrality.

Michelin's high-tech materials business unit — which encompasses rubber products, hydrogen mobility, waste tire recycling, clean and bio-sourced materials and 3D metal printing — plays a key role in this effort. The unit itself may not be focused entirely on tire development, but it is focused on technologies that drive sustainability.

And that allows Michelin to thrive.

"Once we grow in the high-tech materials, we open the group to new business territories like medical or like aerospace, for example," Garcin said. "And, at the same time, we have access to and we develop new high-tech materials that help us to bring to the market by 2050 a tire that will be made 100 percent of fully renewable and recyclable materials."

Developing a 100-percent sustainable tire within the next 30 years may be a tall task, but it's one that Michelin is determined to meet. And the company already has made strides toward that end.

On average, Garcin said, Michelin tires contain about 30 percent sustainable materials. For now, the tiremaker is focused on meeting that 50 percent threshold and doing it relatively quickly.

"We have to close the gap between 30 and 50 [percent]," Garcin said.

At least fundamentally, Michelin has closed the gap.

During its annual Movin'On Summit hosted virtually June 1-4, Michelin unveiled a new racing tire, one containing 46 percent sustainable and recycled content. The tiremaker touted the product, saying it marks the marriage of sustainability and performance.

"With its totally new innovation engineered for motorsports, Michelin has found what many observers thought was impossible: a way to make a tire with high sustainable content that still delivers superior on-track performance," the company said in a news release.

The achievement largely resulted from the increased use of natural rubber and recycled carbon black recovered from end-of-life tires. Other sustainable materials used in the tire included citrus rinds, sunflower oil, pine resin, and recycled steel and aluminum.

Michelin's expertise in sustainable materials has been boosted by a recent partnership with Canada-based Pyrowave Inc. and Houston-based McDermott International Ltd. Through the partnership, Michelin is exploring how plastics recycling technology can yield commercially viable styrene for tires.

Late last year, Michelin and Pyrowave launched an initiative to advance catalytic microwave-based technology that culls styrene monomer from plastics found in polystyrene packaging, insulation panels and/or household appliances.

McDermott, for its part, will provide value engineering, risk analysis and a detailed constructability study.

Recycled materials are just one part of the sustainability equation. Renewable sources matter, too. And as the auto industry makes its transition to electric vehicles, the need for sustainably sourced natural rubber is expected to rise.

EVs demand much from their tires, and building tires that support the weight and torque of the vehicles likely will require increased use of NR in compounds. But with NR demand already outpacing supply, it's imperative to protect the commodity.

With ecological and social responsibility as its guiding lights, Garcin said, Michelin is investing in the NR industry, "working hard with the plantations to be sure that it is extracted in a very sustainable way."

Michelin also is positioned to lead the industry toward a more sustainable supply chain, Garcin said, pointing to the strength of the supply chains — and relationships — the company has built. Those strengths were most evident in the last year as supply chain constraints plagued companies and industries during the pandemic.

"We have a very robust crisis management at Michelin, and I am very proud of that, despite the tension we have on the supply chain overall," Garcin said. "We took the right measures at the right time to be sure that the natural rubber and all of materials will be available when we need it."

Clean mobility is an inevitability, and Michelin is prepared for a future propelled by batteries and fuel cells.

To this end, the tiremaker is focused on developing tires that meet the unique needs of EVs. It's also investing in technology that will drive those tires, specifically hydrogen fuel cells.

"I think hydrogen is — and we believe it is — a strong lever for clean mobility," Garcin said. "… It is a completely clean mobility, because basically you just take some air and mix it with electricity and create hydrogen and the only output you have is water. It is a very clean mobility system, and this is why we believe this a great opportunity for developing a great mobility in the future."

Michelin's investment in hydrogen mobility is more than two decades in the making and has culminated with Symbio, a joint venture with Faurecia S.E.

In the early 2000s, when the concept of vehicle electrification was new, Michelin was focused on the development of green technologies, Yves Faurisson, global head of hydrogen activities for Michelin, said during the company's Capital Day event, hosted virtually April 8.

"Michelin leaders already envisioned the age of zero-emission mobility, a concept largely developed during the Michelin Challenge Bibendum/Movin'On events, and they understood why and how hydrogen could play a major role in transitioning away from fossil fuel," Faurisson said.

Since the JV was formalized in 2019, Symbio has grown significantly thanks to the combined expertise of the two mobility companies.

Today, Symbio has more than 2.5 million miles of on-road vehicle experience and more than a decade of combined technology testing and vehicle integration. The expertise it has built will give Symbio leverage in the years ahead, Faurisson said, as it looks to capture a sizable share of the hydrogen mobility market.

"Our ambition," he said, "is to make hydrogen one of the contributors of the future growth of the group, while a significant share of the group's business will effectively be nontire related in 10 years' time."

McKinsey & Co., Faurisson noted, estimates that the hydrogen value chain could reach as much as $300 billion in the U.S. by 2030. And by that time, Michelin and Faurecia hope to have Symbio established as a leader in the technology.

Symbio aims to sell 200,000 fuel cell stacks per year by 2030, and achievement of that goal will require Michelin and Faurecia to rely on their strengths. It also means establishing relationships with traditional and nontraditional partners from OEMs to fleet managers.

Meanwhile, Symbio is gearing up to grow its manufacturing and R&D footprint. This year, the JV disclosed plans to build the largest fuel cell factory in Europe. Set to be built in Saint-Fons, France, the facility is expected to come online in 2023.

Faurisson did not offer specifics during his presentation, but he did note that Symbio also has an eye on the growing automotive industry in China, and it plans to develop the technology in the country within the coming years.

There are several reasons hydrogen fuel cell technology has potential to grow quickly in a transportation industry transitioning toward a zero-emissions future, according to Garcin. Michelin sees hydrogen checking all of the necessary boxes to move the industry toward electrification because it has the potential to increase range and significantly reduce charging time.

"Hydrogen is just wiping [long charging times] off the table," Garcin said. "Especially when you think about medium to long distance for cars and trucks, this is a fantastic opportunity."

From a broader perspective, hydrogen technology also transcends the automotive space, Faurisson said, adding that its potential reaches into marine, railway, aviation, materials handling and mining industries.

As Michelin works toward shaping its vision for the company and the future of mobility, it may take what seem to be non-traditional paths with its investments and developments. Through it all, one thing is certain: This 132-year-old company has no plans of slowing down.

"Everything is linked to motion, to mobility and is linked to tires," Garcin said of Michelin's momentum. "And, at the same time, it is helping us to develop a business and bring new offers to the market."