TPMS systems not popular among car buyers, car makers

By David Shaw, ERJ staff

Geneva, Switzerland - Car makers at the Geneva motor show see little demand among customers for tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) or tyre pressure warning systems, let alone runflat tyres.

ERJ asked most of the car makers at Geneva which of their vehicles carried TPMS systems and runflat tyres either as standard or as an option. The overwhelming response was that customers have little or no interest in TPMS technology at any price. At Vauxhall, the UK arm of General Motors, a company spokesman said the company has taken TPMS off the option list on its upper-range Vectra and Signum models. He said that the customers did not see the benefits and less than half a percent of its customers chose that option.

Even high-end manufacturers such as Volvo, Porsche and Jaguar reported little interest in TPMS systems among their customers.

Among the car makers, VW and Renault both offer TPMS systems or tyre inflation warning systems across the vast majority of their range, while BMW has pioneered the use of runflat tyres and all their mainstream models offer TPMS as standard.

A spokesman for VW said the company offers a pressure alert system, based on ESC/ABS hardware as an option, for around €50 per car. He said this is coming in as an option on the Golf and Polo later this year, so that by the end of 2006, all its mainstream models will have the option. He added that the cost of the option is less than a set of car mats for a new car, so it may well be thrown in by the dealership as a low-cost incentive to the purchaser. The spokesman added, however that the company is unlikely to offer the technology as standard because the company still has fleet customers -such as the German post office - which insist on vehicles at the absolute minimum price.

The VW spokesman added that even at that price, the take-up of the option has been relatively slow.

At other manufacturers the story quickly became familiar. Consumers have no interest in a device that tells them when a tyre needs re-inflating. At Fiat, Timo di Pardo, brand manager, told ERJ that the company offers a direct pressure monitoring system as an option at around Euro 500 per car, but the take-up was very low. He was unaware of ABS/ESC linked systems at about €50 per car.

Speaking for Volvo, Dr Ekkehard Schwartz, director of vehicle dynamics and active safety, said the company has other priorities in terms of active safety and TPMS is not at the top of the company's priority list. He added that the company will offer TPMS as an option on the new S80 from the summer and Volvo may add it as an option on the V50, but this is not yet decided. Schwartz said the company is tracking the effects of legislation in the US and feels that legislation is more likely to drive the technology than consumer demand.

At Porsche a spokesman said the company sells TPMS as a €500 option on some models, but the take rate is only 10 to 25 percent. He added that the company does not think it will use runflat tyres partly becauise the tyres are seen as too expensive and partly because high performance runflat tyres are seen as more problematic than lower-speed versions. He said Porsche will not offer runflats on the 911 or the Boxter, but it might consider them as a possible optionon future versions of the Cayenne or the Panamera, due for launch in 2008/09.

A spokesman for Ford said TPMS is standard on the company's Galaxy and on the new 5/7-seater mini MPV, called S-Max, as the company has no space for a fifth wheel in the S-Max. The company has fitted Continental's compressor kit as standard. He added that runflat tyres are optional on the Galaxy and may be an option on the S-Max, depending on the wheel dimensions. He did not comment on take-up rate.