Michelin has always seen motorsport as an essential laboratory which leads to innovations that ultimately serve everyday tires.

To be able to test tires in the uniquely extreme conditions encountered in racing and rallying provides Michelin with an opportunity to learn more and also showcase the value of the solutions the company develops for ordinary motorists.

Michelin’s involvement in the FIA Formula E Championship is further evidence of their commitment to enhanced mobility through the extraordinary challenges and opportunities the series provides.

The MICHELIN® Pilot® Sport EV, which has been specially developed for Formula E, alludes to MICHELIN street tires and is a sneak peak at the Ultra High Performance tires to come.

The MICHELIN Pilot Sport EV grooved tire is the first 18-inch tire to be used on a single-seater race-car. This new size, both narrower and taller, is part of the fundamental work done by Michelin’s development teams towards reducing rolling resistance which is directly linked to energy use.

By adopting the 18” rim size, widely used on road cars, Formula E becomes a more effective test-bed for Michelin’s next-generation road tires, continuing its drive to transfer technology from racetrack to road.

“We designed the tires to be both energy-efficient and more like road tires,” said Pascal Couasnon, Director of Michelin Motorsports.

“As a consequence, the new FIA Formula E Championship will serve as a life-size laboratory that will help Michelin to prepare its tires of the future.”

Thanks to the low profile sidewalls the tire is subject to less deformation when running, which reduces the heat build-up and its impact on fuel consumption as it improves the energy efficiency of the tire.

To aid with sustainability and cost-saving, each Formula E driver will be supplied with just five new front tires and five new rear tires to last them the entire day (practice, qualifying and race), whatever the weather.

On wet or dry tracks, whether it is hot or cold, all competitors will keep the same tires, with no detriment either to safety or to performance.

“In ordinary traffic, drivers don’t use slick tires on their road cars, not even sporty road cars,” said Nicolas Goubert, Michelin Motorsports Technical Director.

“The FIA Formula E Championship will use city center street circuits, so our aim was to design tires with tread patterns. The closer we are to the realities of everyday motoring, the more relevant and also speedier the carry-over of technology from the race track to road tires becomes.”

Delivering consistent and efficient performance wet or dry further demonstrates the real strength of the MICHELIN Pilot Sport EV: its sheer versatility, which also means that Michelin can reduce the number of tires made and transported to each race to further reduce environmental impact.

Formula E sits perfectly alongside Michelin’s own values, including the innovative spirit that has been part of Michelin’s DNA since the company was founded more than 120 years ago.

Michelin has always championed mobility, and sustainable mobility in particular; it has also been a key technical player in some remarkable adventures.