Pirelli is best known for supplying high-end rubber to mega-horsepower Italian supercars, so there’s already an inherent challenge to marketing eco-friendly tires.
Further stretching this challenge is the Scorpion Verde tire. Pirelli’s new line is meant for SUVs, the environmental bad boy segment.
Then again, Pirelli also sells a line of “ultra-high-performance, all-season” tires, another seeming oxymoron. Talk all you want about advanced compounds, the best performing tires in the dry max out rubber on the road, while any good winter tire needs open channels to siphon off snow and slush – which is why all-seasons are derided by performance purists as “no-season tires,” thanks to the reduced capability brought on by the inherent compromises needed between summer (more rubber) and winter (more channels) performance.
Pirelli Canada showcased both lines of tires at a demonstration event recently, keen on promoting its latest rubber but also to address the seeming contradictions in tire technology. Pirelli bravely brought along competitors for the parking lot tire tests, which always shows confidence in your products.
The rivals to the P Zero Neros highlighted the performance difference between established German rival Continental and budget South Korean brand Kuhmo, mounted on BMW 328xi all-wheel drive sedans. Its new Scorpion Verde went up against the market leader in the luxury SUV sector, the Michelin Latitude Tour HPs, mounted on BMW X5 diesels. All tires were inflated to factory specs, then run through a slalom, emergency lane change and braking manoeuvres, plus hard cornering over bumps to judge its performance with the suspension heavily loaded.
The Scorpion Verdes are part of an emerging market of enviro-friendlier “green” tires, which are slightly different from the mileage maximizer tires that have been available for years. Yes, the Verde features a low-rolling-resistance compound, down about 20 per cent from the regular light truck tires of the same size, but it also features reduced water, oil and energy in its construction. Weight has been cut by 8 per cent, so it makes a good cost argument just on this and its lengthy (for a green tire) tread-wear rating.
Pirelli group leader Jean-François Veilleux said the resulting fuel economy increase of anywhere from 2.1 to 3.9 per cent could save buyers about 455 litres of fuel over the expected 95,000-km life of the tires. Pirelli expects the tires to last four years versus three, so you’re up to a total savings of $920 overall, the company, assuming an average fuel price of $1.10/litre.
Pirelli estimates that buyers can recoup almost 75 per cent of the total cost of a set of tires, which will retail at $1,250 for four 255/55/R18s, or $313 each. This is just about where Michelin’s non-green Latitude Tour HPs run, although tire makers are loathe to specify prices, as they realize that the MSRP prices they quote are never what consumers pay at retail, given a nearly industry-wide retail discount ranging from 10 to 30 per cent off MSRP.
However, the common complaints about green tires is that their fuel economy focus hinders both their ride and handling, making them both less comfortable when cruising, and less responsive to emergency situations and enthusiastic driving. It was these areas in particular where Pirelli worked hard to achieve new levels of dynamic competence for the Scorpion Verdes, and where our back-to-back showdown with the Michelins would score it against the luxury SUV class benchmark.
