Auto Salon opens in Geneva

Geneva, Switzerland -- This is the

year of green at Geneva. However, the main proponent of environmental tyres -

Michelin -is not present for the second consecutive year.

Yokohama,

Bridgestone and Pirelli are all promoting their environmentally-friendly

credentials at the show.

Speaking

for Yokohama, Satoshi Miura, manager of the passenger car tyre product planning

department said Yokohama will start promoting environment as well as

performance with a new range of tyres to be launched later this year.

At Pirelli,

the company is hoping to do something similar, developing a more

environment-friendly image to match its high performance image.

Bridgestone, however, is displaying the sharpest

turn-around of all the tyre makers heavily promoting its own green agenda and

pushing its environment heritage under the Ecopia branding. The company expects to launch a rtange of truck tyres later this year which will be sold on their improved fuel economy in addition to mileage and other attributes. The company said the move to more environmentally friendly tyres was partly driven by the impending tyre labelling regulations in Euirope, but there were aother factors as well.

Your daily news service may be disrupted today and tomorrow as we attempt to cover the show.