Project title: “Improvement of the EU tyre labelling system for noise and rolling resistance”
Akronim ELANORE
Project Contract No. NOR/POLNOR/ELANORE/0001/2019-00

Road traffic is one of the main noise sources as well as one of the most important producers of CO2 as great majority of vehicles are powered by combustion engines. Even in the case of electric vehicles the tyre/road noise (that is main component of traffic noise) is similar like in case of conventional cars and must be still reduced. Rolling resistance of tyres is one of the controlling factors for energy consumption, especially in low and medium speed range. Both electric, hybrid and conventional cars are affected by the rolling resistance. Hybrid and electric vehicles are designed in such a way that they may recover substantial part of energy that is lost in conventional vehicles during deceleration, but they are as prone to energy loses due to rolling resistance as conventional vehicles.
Successful implementation of Polish-Norwegian project LEO shown, that there is still essential margin for improvements of road pavements and tyres in respect to tyre/road noise and tyre rolling resistance. One of the key factors leading to lower fuel consumption and less annoying traffic noise is proper way of tyre (and pavement) evaluation. Customers, as well as policy makers must have reliable information about tyre/road noise and rolling resistance of tyres. Proper way of evaluation is also crucial for tyre factories as they must have test methods that are representative for traffic conditions.
In principle such system of tyres evaluation already exists, as the European Tyre Labelling Regulation (EC/1222/2009) introduced labelling requirements with regard to the display of information on the fuel efficiency, wet grip and external rolling noise of tyres. The idea of labelling was to allow end-users to make more informed choices when purchasing tyres. Unfortunately after 10 years of experience with the tyre labelling it is common opinion that the methods used to establish labelling parameters are not very representative for real live conditions. In case of tyre/road noise the problem is mostly related to very uncommon type of road pavement that is used for making measurements and in case of rolling resistance the problem is both surface (steel instead of typical, textured pavement), drum curvature and rather unrealistic load/inflation/temperature conditions. Optimization of tyres based on wrongly chosen methods and conditions may lead (and leads) to ill effects. For example tyre that is optimized for running on very smooth steel drum may have high “label efficiency” but not save fuel on textured roads.
Aim of the project ELANORE is to validate to what extent the present labelling system is efficient for reducing environmental impacts of road traffic and propose better solutions. Three Partners constitute ELANORE Consortium namely: Gdańsk University of Technology (GUT), SINTEF Digital and EKKOM. Both GUT and SINTEF have a lot of experience in research related to tyre/road noise and tyre rolling resistance. Both of them have very advanced, often unique equipment for road and laboratory measurements of tyres. Company EKKOM has experience in traffic noise prediction on the base of traffic and vehicle parameters.

The total cost of the project is PLN 5.422.225 including the value of co-financing PLN 5.279.325 paid with a division into:

• 85% of the funding amount from the Norway Grants, which is PLN 4.487.426,25
• 15% of the funding amount from the resources of a designated subsidy state budget, which is PLN 791.898,75

Project implementation period 36 months: 01/09/2020 - 01/09/2023.

Project Promoter:

Gdańsk University of Technology www.pg.edu.pl

Project Partners:

SINTEF AS www.sintef.no

EKKOM Sp. z o.o. www.ek-kom.pl