The tyre industry’s plans to raise the minimum legal car tyre tread depth from 1.6mm to as high as 3mm or 4mm are wasteful, Michelin has said.
Some rival manufacturers want to change the EU laws by as early as 2018.
Speaking to Auto Express, Michelin technical manager Jamie McWhir said well manufactured tyres are built to “guarantee maximum effectiveness right down to 1.6mm”.
With premium tyres, McWhir adds, differences in performance between 1.6mm and new tyres are “minimal”.
But he also claims that in recent years tyres have entered the market designed to perform well in test conditions, not in real-world driving.
“Some of these tyres, when they go below three or four millimetres, their performance drops by up to 30 per cent,” he said.
