A study conducted by Michelin has found that Irish motorists could be needlessly wasting more than €18 million a year on fuel and putting lives at risk by driving on dangerously underinflated tyres, if figures drawn from a UK-wide study were applied here.
After inspecting tens of thousands of cars over an eight-year period through its free Fill-Up-With-Air tyre check programme, extended to include events held in Galway, Naas, Dungarvan, and Ballymena, Michelin found that 62 per cent of cars checked had underinflated tyres, 37 per cent of which were “dangerously underinflated” or “very dangerously” underinflated.
Some 5 per cent had a punctured tyre and 1 per cent had tread depths below the legal minimum. Running on tyres underinflated by as little as 7psi can increase fuel consumption by about one litre every 833kms. At an average petrol/diesel fuel price of €1.37 per litre, this means that almost one third of all cars in Ireland could be consuming an additional €18 million a year on fuel needlessly, Michelin estimates.
