Did you know that tyres aren’t naturally black?

Considering there are quite literally no other options for tyre colours, it is hard to imagine the rubber on your car being anything other than black – but why are car tyres black?

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But there was once a time when tyres weren’t black – instead, they used their natural colour.

Here’s the weirdest trend that took off regarding cars: tyre-dyeing.

Why are car tyres black?

The most obvious indication of what colour tyres are naturally is the Bibendum, more commonly known as the Michelin Man. If you’ve seen him, you’d know he is made of white tyres.

He was created in 1894 and is actually one of the world’s oldest trademarks still in use – made to look like a stack of tyres with arms and a head.

However, the colour of his tyres isn’t a just stylistic choice; that’s the natural colour of the rubber that wraps around the wheels of your cars.

It’s one of those things you don’t realise until you really think about it. “Of course, natural rubber is a cloudy white/clear colour. What’s the go there?”

Automotive history only dates back to 1886 when Carl Benz unveiled his vehicle, but tyres predate that, being used on bicycles, motorcycles and other equipment.

If you’ve ever been to an early transport museum, you’ll notice that all the two-wheeled machines use those white tyres.

These tyres were much less advanced than we see today, mainly because they didn’t need to be over the top with technology. On bicycles and motorcycles, they only really needed to hold around 200kg of weight and last for a few hundred kilometres, compared to a car, which can weigh a tonne or more and needs tyres that can last tens of thousands of kilometres.

Early tyres are usually off-white because innovators started using a mixture of raw rubber with zinc oxide, which was said to increase traction. The zinc oxide also improved the strength of the rubber chain.

This was all well and good until the beginning of World War I when issues arose with tyre durability in preparation for and during the war. This was around the same time that Ford was aggressively selling the first production car ever, the Model T.

It is said that B.F. Goodrich’s chemist, George Oenslager, came up with the idea of using Carbon Black to dye the tyres in 1910.

Carbon black is essentially a very fine soot and is actually one of the earliest inventions. Its production can be dated back to a pigment used for cave paintings.

More than just a dye, which is a common misconception, carbon black is primarily carbon but also contains traces of sulphur, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. When combined with the rubber used for tyre construction, this improves durability and longevity.

Carbon black also has positives in the grip department. The use of this compound means that heat can be dissipated throughout the tyre, which translates to more grip and fewer hot spots that could potentially eat into the life of your tyre.

Since circa 1917, all car tyres have been black, and carbon black is still used in production today, even with advancements in steel belting, synthetic rubber, and other additives.

Why is the Michelin Man white?

Considering that tyres have been black in colour now for over 100 years, it’s a fair question to ask: Why is the Michelin Man white?

With Bibendum being 128 years old, he predates the usage of carbon black in tyres, but there was a brief time in the 1920s when he was featured in several adverts made out of black tyres.

It gets a bit hazy here because there was never any confirmation as to why he returned to being a stack of white tyres. While some believe that it was a racial concern, some sources have mentioned that the change back to white was due to printing and aesthetic issues.

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