Ahead of the July 4th weekend, AAA is expecting to respond to over 400,000 calls for roadside assistance due to the influx of drivers on the roads. Alexis Garcin, president and CEO, Michelin North America joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss key safety tips for drivers, how to maximize fuel efficiency with upgraded ties, and the role of tires in the EV revolution, such as in their partnership with Hyundai. "We started this partnership with Hyundai in 2017, and now we really want to anchor it further so that we can really co-design, co-develop together the leading premium tires for EV," he said. "And at the same time make further progress on the sustainability because really our goal is to develop, by 2050, fully renewable and recyclable tires."

Opening Bell

Michelin CEO Talks Tire Safety, Transition to Electric Vehicles

So here with some tips on staying safe on the roads. This holiday weekend is Alexey Garson president and Ceo of Michelin, North America Alexa the exact number is roughly 42 million people that are expected to hit the road this fourth of july weekend. So given that surge in traffic, I'm curious your advice for drivers in terms of what they should do to limit the hiccups, you know, their vehicles may experience when they're on the road. Good morning and thanks thanks for having me. You know that Michelin is the leading manufacturer worldwide and we have not achieved this position by chance. I think I can say that we are quite obsessive with quality performance of tires and obviously safety because actually most people do not realize how tires are critical for their safety on the road And actually if, if you do not consider just the summer vacation that is ahead of us and maybe, many many Americans hitting the road for the July four, I think it would be fair to say that just spend a couple of minutes to check on your tires, whether trap death is correct, whether that pressure is correct because that can really change your life and maybe save your life. And I think the second also impact of that, which most people do not realize is that if your tires are underinflated, it could increase your gas consumption by more than 20%. So you know just spending some, some minutes to check on your tails could really save your life and and ease your wallet which is in the current inflation time. we have probably a wise thing to do, you know, mission Michelin, I was gonna ask you about the actual the gas price when it comes to tires being inflated, but you kind of hit on that already and that's something that even one of my co anchors, Shannon Lanier mentioned before inflating your tire, especially the higher gas prices can you're safe. But Michelin recently teamed up with Hyundai to make upgraded tires for electric vehicles amid this boom in E V. Right, can you tell us a little bit more about this partnership and how these tires will be optimized for E V. S. Actually we have been, you know that we have been at the forefront of innovation since our inception, so more than 130 years ago And regarding these revolution that we are witnessing right now, we have been the pioneer in launching the first tire efficient, energy efficient tire in 1992 and these technologies have been obviously evolving so that today position us very, very well as the leading time manufacturer in electric vehicles. And that partnership with the day that we just unveiled is just one example out of many other ones that helped us to be on the edge of this new evolution. We've started this partnership with Hyundai in 2000 and 17 and now we really want to anchor it further so that we can really co design co developed together the leading premium tires for E. V. And at the same time make further progress on the sustainability because really our goal is to develop by 2050 fully renewable and recyclable tires And you might want to know Alicia, that's for example, in the in the latest 24 hours of Le Monde in France. Last month we had a tire that that run part of the race that was made out of 53% of bio sourced and recycled materials. So we are well on our way to deliver that vision of being fully renewable and recyclable. So that's that's again one example of all what we do to promote better mobility or say for one of the most sustainable one, I definitely want to get in the sustainability effort on Michelin. But I am just really quickly curious what are some of the key differences between an E. V. Tire as opposed to your traditional tires that we see on the road now. Yeah, that's a that's a great question Alicia, those those electric vehicles have completely different requests from the tires to make it very simple and electric car is heavier. The talk is way higher so that all of that puts more pressure literally on the tire. So we have to adapt the conception of the tile also the material we use so that we can deal with this new weight and you talk at the same time maximize the grip but maximizing the running resistance, you know, the friction between the turn and the road because if you have too much of a rain resistance then you will need more energy to move forward. And at a time where we're shifting to electric cars. Obviously if you can optimize that, you have a direct impact on the range of the car and for example, the latest generation of the E. Primacy or the pilot sport E. V. That we launched specifically for sports cars that are electrified. We can have an impact up to 37 miles on the range of the car because we are able to maximize and to optimize these rank resistance without compromising any other safety features or grip that made the reputation of the Michelin tires. I never would have thought there was that much of a difference between kind of attire for a traditional combustion engine vehicle and an E. V. Vehicle, but clearly there is an impacting the range and range is really one of the biggest issues when it comes to people converting over over to E. V. So that's fascinating. Want to jump back on sustainability because you mentioned obviously, you know, sustainability of being major effort for Michelin, I think the goal is 100% sustainable material by 2050. Can you just talk a little bit about how you guys are planning to pull that off and will there be any changes to the performance and importantly, obviously the safety of the tires. Well, we really pride ourselves at mission to not making any compromise because it's, it's really a question of maximizing the safety first of our customers and without again compromising any kind of performance. So that's where those new technological material that we use to produce a tire are coming to play and we are investing a lot in research and in developing those new materials so that we can really keep on bringing the best solutions to the, to the car manufacturers at the time where they're facing an immense revolution. But again, using this without compromising the grip, the safety, the wet or the dry, breaking even the snow traction. One of the greatest example of that is the Michelin cross climate to that we've launched some months ago now last year and that is providing an excellent performance while bringing more tire longevity so that we can minimize the impact on the environment. And that's really 11 of the latest examples we have that we can really maximize the type of performance and minimize the impact on the environment and overall, that's how we intend to promote a better, safer and more sustainable mobility. Yeah, important to know that safety is so top of mind for you guys and obviously the meeting, the initiative of that sustainability before I let you go here, I wanna switch gears for a moment and ask you about, you know, after suspending production in Russia? Michelin has officially announced plans to transfer its business in Russia to local management, why was this such a crucial move for the company and and how do you anticipate this is going to shift operations or way on Michelins bottom line? I think overall and over the time, Michelin always condemned any violation to the international law And considering this, we have been stopping production and all exports to Russia as early as March 15 and we just came recently to the conclusion that we don't see any options for us to operate further our operations there. And that's why we've just launched a project to see under what's circumstances we could transfer or manufacturing or administration and sales activities to part of the local management. And the one intent behind that is to make sure that we, we try to find a way to protect our employees there. We have 1000 employees in Russia and would like to provide them with the job because as of now they are still on our payroll but we are not able to produce. So that project will help us to identify whether there is a way, but in any case that entity, if it was to be created, will be completely independent from the michigan group as again, we have pulled out from the Russian market, you know obviously important to to protect the workers there as much as you can, but I am just curious how much business is that does that represent for Michelin. So Russian market is for us more or less, 1% of our worldwide sales and this this being said we, you know, people comes always at first at Michelin and that's why we are very, very sensitive to our employees there and we'll see whether we can find a solution for them. But again, Michelin will be out of that and it's if there is a solution, Michelin will remain completely independent, certainly the right move to stand by your employees and try to get the best outcome for them while making a move that's best for the company. Really appreciate your time and your insight, Alexey, Garson, president and Ceo of Michelin, North America. Thank