UNECE agreed on first-ever methodology to measure tyre abrasion

Yesterday, the Working Party on Noise and Tyres of the UNECE’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) adopted a proposal to introduce two methods to measure tyre abrasion under UN Regulation No. 117.

This assessment will be done through an outdoor testing method with the following characteristics:

• Circuit on open public roads with boundary conditions to ensure that the conditions are reproducible.
• Convoy of 4 vehicles, one with reference tyres and three with candidate tyres.
• 8,000 km with a permutation of vehicles and drivers in convoy every 500 km.
• About 200 tyres will be tested.

These measurement methods are expected to be applied in a market assessment exercise, aiming to collect abrasion data from diverse tyre sizes, patterns and brands. Such data would then be used to determine tyre abrasion limits to be incorporated in UN Regulation No. 117 by September 2025 for tyres fitted to passenger cars (C1 tyres).

The proposal will become the reference methodology of the Euro 7 regulation of the European Union.

The measuring method is expected to be expanded to heavier vehicles with C2 and C3 types of tyres during 2026 and 2027 to cover most road vehicle categories.