The National Tyre Distributor’s Association (NTDA) in the UK and Lanxess, a leading producer of high performance synthetic rubbers, have partnered to launch a new app for smartphone, tablet and PC, which will help dealers improve customer understanding of the impact greener tyres can have on fuel economy and carbon emissions.

In response to the new EU law on tyre labelling, tyre manufacturers are developing a new breed of premium ‘green tyres’ that can achieve the highest grades across the three categories featured on the labels, and help motorists reduce their annual fuel bills.

Unfortunately the results from a recent Lanxess survey of 3,000 UK motorists shows that almost all (99%) vastly underestimate the impact tyres have on their fuel bills and that over half still prioritise upfront cost when buying their tyres. They also suggest that less than 20% take fuel consumption and long term costs into consideration when making their purchase.

To combat this lack of understanding and to help dealers encourage motorists to take advantage of the incoming changes, Lanxess and the NTDA have developed a free app for smartphones, tablets and web-enabled PCs. It enables dealers to quickly and very accurately demonstrate to each customer exactly how much fuel, money, and carbon different tyre categories can save them based on the car they drive, their annual mileage, and their driving style. It demonstrates that changing tyres could save around £200 per year in petrol cost and 350kg of carbon emissions if their annual mileage is 10,000 miles, their car averages 35 mpg and the price of fuel is approximately £1.30 per litre.

Based on scientific research from the Technical University of Munich, the app asks the motorist about the car they drive (to establish fuel consumption), their annual mileage, the current price of petrol, their driving style and the category of their existing tyres according to the labelling system. It then calculates the exact savings per year and delivers that information clearly, and simply in pounds (financial savings), litres (fuel savings) and Kg (carbon savings) on a single screen.

The app also uses this information to calculate the time and miles required to recoup the possible additional cost of the green tyres, providing yet more information on which to base purchasing decisions.