Michelin Launches First India-Made Passenger Car Tyres; New Primacy 5 Range Prices Start at Rs 10,000

Michelin India has launched its first-ever domestically produced passenger car tyres in India, the new Primacy 5. Priced from Rs 10,000, the Primacy 5 is available in sizes ranging from 16 up to 22 inches and will be available through Michelin’s network of Michelin Tyre and Service (MTS) centres across the country for aftermarket fitment. The company says that the new Primacy 5 offers lower rolling resistance than the Primacy 4 ST currently in the market and can be used in both internal combustion and all-electric models.

“India is strongly going towards bigger cars, and if I have to equate that in inches, we believe that 16 inches and above is the market which is going to significantly grow, where 13, 14, 15 inches are on a decline—they will remain for a large part, but the growth is happening in 16 inches. So in Chennai, we are going to manufacture from 16 inches up to 22 inches. So any cars which are all 16 inches up to 22 inches will have an offering for them,” said Shantanu Deshpande, Managing Director, Michelin India.

Also read: Michelin Unveils Made-In-India Passenger Vehicle Tyre Range

The company said that the Indian market had seen a marked shift in recent years, going from a hatchback country to one where SUVs and large cars now dominate the market. This has, in turn, created demand for tyre sizes in the 16-inch-and-above segment.

Michelin claims that the Primacy 5 is EV-ready and capable of handling the loads, weights and drivetrain characteristics of modern electric cars. Furthermore, the company says that the new tyres offer 6.5 per cent lower rolling resistance than the existing Primacy 4, thus improving range or mileage.

Michelin said that it has tested its tyres against those from rival brands including Bridgestone, Continental and Yokohama, with the Primacy 5 offering shorter braking distances by up to 8 metres in the wet and by up to 9 metres with the treads worn down to 2 mm. The company also claims up to 10 per cent improvement in ride comfort over the Primacy 4.

Minor Changes For India-Spec Primacy 5s

In an interesting twist, while a lot of the chemistry and components of the Made-In-India Primacy 5 is identical to the units manufactured abroad, the tyres have some tweaks specifically catered to withstand the Indian environment.

Commenting on the composition of the tyres, Jean-François Rene, Executive Director, Michelin Chennai said, “Everything is the same. We are just adding some material inside the tyre to address the road hazards that we could have in India. But otherwise, all the compounds are exactly the same. Raw material, quality point of view, everything is the same.”

Aftermarket Only Initially But Open To OEM Collaborations

For now, Michelin says that the new Primacy 5 series will become available at its over 150 MTS outlets across the country, with plans to further build on this number. The company has, however, said that it will look to OEM collaborations down the line as production capacity increases in the future.

“OE is definitely an important segment for us across all business lines. Just to give you context, we have truck and bus (tyre) manufacturing happening already for the last 10 years, and when we started our truck and bus factory here, we first focused on the replacement market, but now we are selling to OEMs. We are selling to Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Volvo, Eicher, Daimler; all of those are our OE customers in trucks. We believe the same trend will also happen in passenger cars. We will start and focus on getting our state together in the replacement market, and as we grow and as we have opportunities, the OE segment will also happen,” Deshpande said.

Michelin says that it plans to ramp up passenger car tyre production at its Chennai plant through to the end of 2027, with further tyre lines also set to launch. The company had last year unveiled the Pilot Sport 5 and LTX Trail as part of its made-in-India line-up.

“We are starting with Primacy 5, we will industrialise all the tyre lines which we are selling in other parts of the world, be it Pilot Sport 5, be it LTX Trail,” Deshpande said. “The ramp-up of the factory will happen over the coming months. And we'll have Pilot Sport 5 being made in India; you'll have LTX Trail being made in India; all those tyre lines will flow through our plant in Chennai in the coming months. It is not years; it is just around the corner, I would say.”