Michelin entering into economical range of tyres for Indian Truck Tyre Application

Hyderabad, October 4, 2016: When technology is invading, how can Tyre Technology be far behind asked Mohan Kumar, Commercial Director, Michelin India, the world’s tyre technology leader.

One of the three largest tyre manufacturers in the world, Michelin said Technology is changing everywhere and why not the tyre. It has introduced "X-Guard" Truck Tyre into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Markets. The product is launched simultaneously across the country.

The new product was introduced to the dealers in a function held in Hyderabad on Monday night in city hotel. 150 dealers from all over both Telugu states attended. The product is available through Distributor network. The Sushil Enterprises is appointed as sole distributed for Telangana and Kota Distributors Pvt. Ltd for A.P markets.

The new Michelin X-Guard D comes out with two new patented technologies—Infinicoil and Regenion.

The new product is brought out as a result of consumer survey of 3000 customers across the country, disclosed Mohan Kumar. Now we have created a range, which we couldn’t participate earlier. We started our R&D three years ago, he added.

In India there are two types of customer segments. One is the Established Fleet Owners, who comprise just 20 per cent of the market. The other segment is Upcoming Fleet Owners, who comprise 80 per cent of the market. In this two broad group of fleet owners, we could only service to first segment, which is very small. We didn’t have any specific product for the Upcoming Fleet Owners, which is a very large market. This segment needs were Price, First Life Tyres, Robustness, Brand etc. These priories are taken from the 3000 customers, Mohan Kumar informed.

In a traditional way we could have brought out a new product by reducing price, robustness and compromise on mileage. But, we haven’t done that, informed Satya Prasad, Regional Manager of Telangana, AP and Chattisgarh.

Michelin is a Technology leader. We wanted to find out an alternative way. He sighted few expamples of Mangalyan, WhatsApp and Kindle which managed to offer superior technology at a reduced cost. ISRO sued high technology and launched Mangalyan, at the one tenth cost of NASA. WhatsApp is again high technology oriented product that comes at zero cost. Kindle also made book reading a cheaper option. We applied this principle in Tyres. We asked ourselves cant we do the same to the tyres. And our Reserch Team came up with X-Guard, for Indian Truck Market Application.
The tyre goes to end users at a cost of Rs 18,500/- at a uniform all inclusive cost across the country.

Two new patented tyre technologies--Infinicoil and Regenion made it possible to offer truck tyres at attractive prices, Mohan Kumar informed.

It is a technology breakthrough product which will deliver more mileage due to compact tread design. 3D Metal mold printing technology was used in designing the Tyre. The technology enables X-Guard to have superior contact pitch. The more rubber on the ground and square foot print enables upto 4% extra fuel efficiency.
This technology is used by X-One and high speed passenger car tyre makers.

This tyre is extensively tested. It has travelled 14 crore kilometers so far all over India. Nearly 1500 tyres are fitted on to 700 trucks. It has gone through 60 to 70 tests, Praveen Jain added.

French tyre manufacturer Michelin came to India a decade ago. It is now a leading international tyre company in the country. Today, Michelin India offers a range of tyres--Passenger Cars, Truck & Bus, Two-wheeler & Off Road Vehicles. Michelin tyres are designed, produced and marketed to meet the challenges of mobility in the Indian market informed Praveen Kumar Jain of the Sushil Enterprises.