Green Daily

If you're looking for ways to green your ride, you might want to consider a new set of "low resistance" tires. Michelin is marketing a line of what it calls "green tires" -- don't laugh, Michelin estimates that tires can account for 20% of the energy consumption of your car. While we know it's true that properly inflated tires can improve your gas mileage, can a energy efficient tire really make a difference when it comes to your carbon footprint?

We'll have a better idea when we see the results from the company's $6.8 million dollar R&D program, much of which is being conducted at Clemson University's automotive research center. Michelin's Energy Saver tires are supposed to reduce a car's emissions by 4g per kilometer and boost fuel economy by a couple mpgs. So far, we've only seen this tire available in Europe, but hopefully that will change this year.

Michelin was the tire-maker chosen for the late EV1 -- the all-electric car the GM pulled the plug on -- so they do have some eco-credibility. We also know that the EU is considering a better CO2 rating for vehicles equipped with Michelin's energy savers.

[via Earth2Tech]