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Michelin Cross Climate 2 Review – BAD Fuel Economy?

Michelin tyres fitted to car which is in snow.

I’ve done some Michelin Cross Climate 2 reviews and while I tried them in different weather & thought they were great, some people commented on their fuel economy.

Some were saying this is the elephant in the room I’d ignored ie Cross Climate 2 tires destroy fuel economy.

The truth is, I had absolutely no idea what the Cross Climate 2 did to fuel economy, I hadn’t thought to check it because I didn’t believe the difference would be noticeable. But having read the comments on the videos I thought it was worthwhile doing a video on fuel economy to see what effect they have on MPG.


Quick Version – Cross Climate 2 Review

I believe the Cross Climate 2 tires are probably around 3-5% worse on fuel consumption vs Continental EcoContact 6 tyres, for the roads I drive on, for the car I drive, for the times of the day I drive, for the speeds I drive and for the way I drive. Your results may differ.


Testing

There is a route I have traveled thousands of times and it is also a route where I have measured the fuel economy of the car when it had the previous tyres, the Continental Eco Contact 6.

In this article & video I am going to drive this same route to see what kind of fuel economy figures I can get with the Cross Climates.

Comparable Figures

The fuel consumption figures I have for the Eco Contact 6 were achieved when I was trying to get the best possible MPG number for the route. This is how I will drive with the Cross Climate 2, I will be trying to get the best fuel economy I can.

I’m confident my driving will be consistent between the two tyres. The car is the same and so is the route. The economy calculations are done in the same way also ie both using the car’s onboard computer.

The Target

With the Continental Eco Contact 6 I could regularly get 6.5 litres/100km for the route. This will be the number by which the Cross Climate 2 numbers will be compared.

Target: 6.5 litres/100km

Run 1 – Cross Climate 2 Review

Result: 7 litres/100km

The first run I did at night ended with a fuel economy number of 7 litres/100km. Disappointing.

However during the first run there was a very strong head wind on the section of the route that would see the best fuel economy ie the motorway section. Driving along this stretch of motorway the fuel economy did not improve at the rate I would expect.

Another run or two is needed.

Run 2 – Cross Climate 2 Review

Result: 6.1 litres/100km

Nice run in general, ie traffic was moving well. Less headwind than previous day.

Run 3 – Cross Climate 2 Review

Result: 6.4 litres/100km

A nice run again with traffic moving for more or less the whole journey. Even less wind for this run.


Conclusion – Michelin Cross Climate 2 MPG Test

Comparing Tyres

The biggest difference between the runs with the Continental Eco Contact 6 and the Michelin was the temperature.

EcoContact 6 runs were done in temps above 15 Celsius while the three runs with the Michelins were done in temperatures close to zero.

I am not sure what effect this would have on fuel economy but I imagine colder temps would be beneficial for MPG. To what extent it would be beneficial I don’t know.

Gut Feeling

It would be nice to have done the fuel economy runs at the same temperature but it is what it is.

My conclusion is that the Cross Climate 2s are capable of getting comparable fuel economy to the Eco Contact 6.

Perhaps for Run 2 where the traffic was light I would have got a sub 6 litres/100km MPG with the Eco Contact 6.

Run 3 I think was representative, at least from traffic perspective and I think the Eco Contact 6 would have got similar fuel economy.

Run 1 I am going to write off as unrepresentative.

Are The Cross Climate 2 Bad on MPG?

The impression I have is that they are certainly not better than the Eco Contact 6 and my gut tells me they are probably around 0.2 to 0.4 litres/100 km worse.

Again, gut feeling, not measured.

What does this mean in dollar terms?

Assuming you drive 20,000 km a year (12,500 miles).

With a fuel consumption of 7.4 litres/100km, with the Eco Contact 6 you are going to use around 1480 litres of fuel (or 391 US Gallons)

With the Cross Climate 2, at the worse end of my gut feeling ie 7.8 litres/100km, you are going to use around 1560 litres of fuel (or 412 US Gallons)

In other words, vs the Eco Contact 6, you are going to use around 80 litres (21 US Gallons) more fuel with the Cross Climate 2, at the worse end of the spectrum & if your MPG is similar to mine. For me this equates to around 3-5% worse fuel economy with the Michelin.

I let you do the math with the fuel price in your area for your costs.

Is the MPG a deal breaker?

At the time of writing, for me, the extra cost of using the Cross Climate 2s is around 210 Euro a year (I do around 30,000km annually) at the high end (if the Michelin are 0.4 litres/100km worse), 105 Euro a year at the low end (0.2 litres/100km worse).

For the all weather performance, including their snow performance and considering how good they are in hot conditions I think the Cross Climate 2s are still the choice tyre over the Eco Contact 6 tyres. Just.

But the climate where I am is basically dry. If you live in a wet country, the benefits of the Cross Climate 2 for you will be more.

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This page was last modified Feb 14, 2023 @ 4:39 pm

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2 thoughts on “Michelin Cross Climate 2 Review – BAD Fuel Economy?

  1. Thank you very much for doing the review. There is quite good evidence that low ambient temperatures significantly reduce gas mileage. This makes sense immediately as colder air is denser and means more resistance to movement. Also, colder engine temperatures mean more internal friction that also decreases MPG (although this is mainly impactful in city driving where short drives can result in up to 20% reduction in mileage compared to same drive in summer temps). So I’m getting the CrossClimate’s. Truth is this will be the third set for me. Swapping out to CrossClimate’s saves me the expense and time of putting snow tires on for winter. Thanks again. Great review.

    1. Thank you for the kind words. Thats why I went for the CC2s. Wanted a set of tyres I could use all year and have snow performance if I need them. We don’t get snow often but when we do, being able to move around normally is hard to put a price on.

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