About the new EU tire label I've already written and even if it doesn't make complete sense at the moment, it's still a first step in the right direction. Because in the end, the consumer should be helped to independently assess various criteria when choosing a tire.
Can you save fuel with the tire label?
If you believe a press release from the chemistry expert “LANXESS”, a “green” tire, i.e. a tire with extremely good rolling resistance, is significantly more efficient in terms of “saving fuel” than, for example, an automatic start-stop system.
How much the optimized rolling resistance lowers the fuel costs of a car is shown by a simple example from the study by the Technical University of Munich: According to this, a car that uses six liters of fuel per 100 kilometers and covers a distance of 12.500 kilometers a year can run at a fuel price of 1,40, Save 100 euros per liter thanks to "green tires" up to 20.000 euros per year. An automatic start-stop system reduces fuel consumption by around six percent, but the acquisition and installation of this type of technology are significantly more expensive than converting to “green tires”. Correspondingly, the additional costs of quality tires are brought in again more quickly: "Green tires" pay off on average after 60.000 kilometers, the automatic start-stop system only after 4,7. Even when it comes to the so-called “green return”, tires do well: With XNUMX kilograms of CO saved2 For every additional euro invested, the efficiency value is another 50 percent higher than that of the automatic start-stop system and even 150 percent higher than that of a hybrid drive.
In order to give consumers an independent tool, LANXESS has not only put a tire guide online as a .pdf, but also an app for iOS devices or as a web interface with which you can calculate whether the change is worth it on a tire in a better “tire label class”.
Saving money by choosing the right tire?
Particularly good premium tires that also score well in the EU tire label are usually more expensive than the average of the tire offers. As an example, I use two tire offers from an online tire dealer:
- Goodyear ULTRA Grip 7+ for € 61,30 - as a premium tire
- Vredestein Snowtrac 3 for € 54,70 - as a standard tire
Both tires are in the commonly used size 195/65 – 15, the premium tire from Goodyear has a “C” classification in the tire label for “consumption / rolling resistance”, the Vredestein only received an “E”.
The price difference between the two tires as a set is €26,40. The "Fuel-saving calculator from LANXESS” can now tell us how many kilometers the C-rated tire has recouped the price difference when purchasing it compared to the “E” tire.
In my example, I assume an Audi A4 petrol engine with 150PS, older model (the winter tires, for example, are suitable for this) and state 12.000 km (national average) as the annual mileage. For this purpose, a consumption of approx. 8 liters and a petrol price of € 1,65.
And the result is immediately surprising:
The surcharge of just € 7 per tire ensures that after just 2 months, or 1.900 kilometers driven, the extra price for the better tires is returned.
On the online computer, you can then use a slider to set how high the additional price will be in the combination you have chosen and you can see at a glance whether a conversion is worthwhile. In my case, I would assume that an additional price (per tire!) Of € 35 no longer leads to savings - since you have to drive 36.300 km or 3 years here. In my case, however, the tires would no longer be usable.
And finally ...
The EU tire label is not really useless, even if it is not fully thought through. With the help of the “Fuel Saving Calculator” on the website: http://gm-spritrechner.lanxess.com/public/de (There is also an iOS app, as I said) you can judge relatively quickly whether the purchase or the additional costs for better-rated tires make sense in your own case or not.