Tyres Europe has published three summary reports presenting the results of sector Life Cycle Assessment studies covering representative European passenger-car, truck and bus, retreaded and regrooved tyres.

Conducted by Sphera using average industry data from several European manufacturers, the studies examine potential environmental impacts from raw-material production and manufacturing through to transport, use and end of life. All studies followed internationally recognised standards (such as ISO 14040 and ISO 14044) and tyre-specific rules, providing a consistent and comparable approach. The methodology and results were also independently peer reviewed.

Across the passenger-car and truck tyre studies, the use phase was the largest contributor to most of the environmental impact categories assessed, largely because rolling resistance influences vehicle fuel or energy consumption over many kilometres. Raw-material production was generally the second most significant contributor.

The truck tyre comparison also found that the representative high-performance tyre assessed had 8% to 27% lower potential environmental impacts than the representative medium-to-low-performance tyre across the categories studied. The differences were mainly linked to lower rolling resistance and longer mileage.

The retreading and regrooving analysis highlights the potential benefits of preserving an existing tyre casing and reducing demand for new raw materials. It also shows why circularity and use-phase performance need to be considered together. As representative measured data on retreaded-tyre rolling resistance and mileage were not available, the retreading findings are based on defined scenarios and a break-even analysis.

Taken together, the studies underline that the environmental performance of a tyre cannot be assessed through one characteristic alone. Materials, manufacturing, rolling resistance and mileage all need to be considered across the full lifecycle.

The findings can help inform ongoing policy discussions on the implementation of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, retreading, public procurement and the treatment of tyres and their inputs under EU climate and industrial policy.

The summary reports are available below and the FAQ here.

The full reports and technical FAQ are available upon request at info@tyreseurope.org.