ONE of the UK's leading companies has estimated it could cut almost £200,000 a year off its car fleet fuel bill by switching to energy-saving tyres.

Pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer carried out parallel tests on its 1,300-strong fleet comparing Michelin Energy tyres to the tyres originally fitted to two cars. A Nissan Primera covering more than 70,000 miles and a Volvo V40 SE running for 20,000 miles were fitted with the Energy tyre. The test vehicles delivered a fuel consumption improvement of 7.7% against one brand and 3.7% against the other.

Projections show that with 80% of Bayer's fleet of 1,300 vehicles eligible for Michelin tyres the potential saving would be nearly £190,000.

Tread wear recordings taken at the same time also showed the Michelin Energy tyre gave more than 25% more mileage, potentially saving Bayer a further £41,000 a year and reducing purchases by nearly 700 tyres.

Fleet administrator Andy Regan said: 'Our tests showed that Michelin Energy gave a substantial fuel saving, an equally impressive increase in mileage and consequent saving in tyre purchases.'

The Newbury-based company operates petrol and diesel models running on a four-year/60,000-mile and four-year/90,000-mile lifespan respectively.