Soft tyres waste £4.6bn of fuel

Drivers in Europe are squandering four billion litres of fuel each year because they drive with under-inflated tyres, according to tyre manufacturer Bridgestone.

It carried out safety checks on 52,400 cars in 15 EU countries, and found that eight out of 10 (81%) of motorists are driving on under-inflated tyres.

Under-inflated tyres cause drag, which wastes fuel, and Bridgestone has calculated that the fuel waste equates to four billion litres annually – or, put another way, £4.6bn worth of fuel.

Low pressure, high damage
The other effect of such increased fuel consumption is greater carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

It's thought that the waste is the equivalent of 9.3 million tonnes of unnecessary CO2 emissions.

The findings in detail
Of the tyres examined, 26.5% were seriously under-inflated – in other words, at least 0.5 bar (7psi) below the car manufacturer's recommended pressures.

Another 7.5% were putting their safety at high risk by running with severely under-inflated tyres (at least 0.75 bar – 11psi – below the recommended pressure).

In addition, 17% of tyres were found to be worn below the EU legal minimum of 1.6mm tread depth. Around 9% of tyres examined were both severely worn and severely under-inflated.

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