How Michelin took the X-Ice Snow tire and pushed performance, longevity and efficiency even further with the new X-Ice Snow+.

For years, the Michelin X-Ice Snow has been one of the go-to winter tires for many Canadian consumers. Words like “impressive,” and “amazing,” and “excellent” have often been used in online reviews by those who purchased a set to describe the X-Ice Snow, further emphasizing just how much consumers love this tire.

Michelin recently gave X-Ice Snow fans even more reason to rejoice when they unveiled a new and improved version: the X-Ice Snow+. While the name hasn’t changed much (except for the addition of the “+” sign), and the tread pattern remains the same, Michelin says this new tire is better than the original in a number of ways.

Michelin DNA

“We launched the X-Ice Snow six years ago,” says Omer Waysman, Vice President of B2C Marketing for Michelin North America, “but our DNA at Michelin is to continuously innovate.”

Waysman says that they challenged the engineers at Michelin to take an already excellent tire, and make it event better. “What I’m most proud of is the fact that we didn’t make any compromises,” he adds. “We just improved several elements of performance—on wet roads, on dry roads, on ice, on snow—and we improved fuel-efficiency, as well as wear.”

Michelin points out that this tire was built to last, promising “more than 26% longer tread life than three leading competitors.”

While that may be impressive, the real question is how the new tire compares with the original? According to Waysman, the X-Ice Snow+ delivers improved grip and braking capabilities over the original tire: 1% better on snow, 4% better on ice, 14% better on wet road surfaces, 7% on dry tarmac.

Michelin’s “secret sauce”

While the tread design is pretty much identical, the new tire benefits from a new compound, as well as the “secret sauce” that Michelin calls, “the advanced FLEX-ICE™ 3.0 tread compound.”

David Griese, Product Category Manager, Winter Segment, Michelin North America explains that this is the company’s newest compound, developed specifically for the X-Ice Snow+ tire.

“Although we keep our material recipes a secret,” Griese says, “I can tell you that every tread compound has three main ingredients: An elastomer, which is the backbone of the rubber; other materials like plasticizers and additives, including oils; and filler materials, including silica. For this new tread compound, we have changed or tuned all three.”

Finally, since winter tires are sure to spend at least part of the season driving on dry paved roads, Michelin has gone the extra mile to make sure the X-Ice Snow+ is as quiet as possible.

“We employed Piano Acoustic Tuning Technology to reduce road noise for a quieter, more comfortable ride,” Griese says. “This is a software and simulation tool we use to minimize the noise coming from tires.”

Looking at the tread with the naked eye, most people would say that all the tread features are evenly-spaced and identical, all around the tire, Griese explains. “But if you look more closely, you’ll see that they’re slightly varied and slightly different,” he adds. “That’s by design, so that you don’t get certain resonances and noise coming from the tire.”

Finally, the new tire was engineered to last longer. “The X-Ice Snow tire comes with a warranty, which is rare in the winter tire category,” Griese says. “We have improved the warranty for the new X-Ice Snow+. So while the original tire came with a 60,000 km warranty, the new tire will have a longer warranty. We’re currently running tests to see how long that new warranty will be, but I’m confident that it will be [better than 60,000 km].”

Test track experience

To prove how capable the new X-Ice Snow+ tire is, Michelin invited the media to test it head-to-head against some of the top winter tires on the market today: Continental VikingContact 8, Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 EV, and Bridgestone Blizzak WS90.

Whether driving on sheer ice or deep snow, the new X-Ice Snow+ tire consistently delivered better grip and control than these other tires, although in some cases, the difference between the X-Ice Snow+ and the competition was minimal. That’s to be expected, since these are all top-rated tires.

One of the more impressive tests took place on an icy hill with the tread on both the Michelin X-Ice Snow+ and the Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 shaved down to 4/32nds. Here, the X-Ice Snow+ performed considerably better than the Blizzak WS90, delivering more grip, and less wheel spin.

That said, Bridgestone is replacing the Blizzak WS90 with a the Blizzak IcePeak, later this year. Although it would have been nice to compare the new X-Ice Snow+ with the new IcePeak (both are great winter tires), it simply wasn’t possible to do so at this event.

The X-Ice Snow+ represents more than a product refresh—it’s a strategic reinforcement of a proven winter platform. By improving compound chemistry, extending projected tread life and refining wet, snow, ice and dry performance Michelin has made a great tire even better.