Abrasion Rates and Service Life of C2 Tyres for Vans

Vans (light commercial vehicles) account for only about 11% of the European light-duty vehicle fleet. However, they are mostly used in urban delivery and service operations where frequent stop-and-go driving increases tyre abrasion. Furthermore, their annual mileage is on average more than 70% higher than that of passenger cars. For these reasons, vans are estimated to generate tyre wear emissions that are at least 2.5 times higher than those of passenger cars on a per-vehicle basis, and therefore make a disproportionate contribution to microplastic pollution in cities. The Euro 7 pollutant emission standards introduce, for the first time, regulatory limits on tyre abrasion for passenger car tyres (C1 class) from 2028 and for light-commercial-vehicle tyres (C2 class) from 2030, building on United Nations (UN) tyre testing procedures developed under UN Regulation 117. While two candidate test methods (a real-world method and a laboratory method) have been agreed on for C1 tyres, no equivalent standard exists yet for C2 tyres, and very few experimental data have been published so far. In this study, we adapt the C1 real-world-based method to winter C2 tyres (snow three-peak mountain snowflake, 3PMSF) fitted to vans, and we discuss the practical and regulatory challenges encountered. The resulting abrasion rate and abrasion level indices provide first experimental emission factors for C2 tyres and can inform the ongoing development of regulatory test procedures and limit values for van tyres. We also develop an experimental and analytical framework to relate abrasion measurements to tyre service life (mileage potential).