Michelin has released details of an airless tyre it says could eliminate punctures and bring huge environmental benefits by doing away with the 200 million tyres which are prematurely scrapped every year as a result of damage.

Called the Uptis (Unique Puncture-proof Tire System), a prototype has been revealed this week at a summit on sustainable mobility within the motor industry and Michelin is now working with General Motors to do further research with the aim of having it on passenger cars by 2024.

Uptis features ground-breaking improvements in architecture and composite materials which lets it bear the weight of a car at road-going speeds and deliver the expected ride comfort and grip. It features a composite rubber and proprietary, high-strength resin embedded fibreglass structure around an aluminium wheel.

It will initially be aimed at electric vehicles where energy efficiency is paramount and trials will be run later this year on a test fleet of Chevrolet Bolt EV cars in America.

A Michelin spokesman said: “Drivers of passenger vehicles feel safer on the road, operators of passenger vehicle fleets minimise downtime and improve efficiency resulting from flat tyres and near-zero levels of maintenance and society at large benefits from extraordinary environmental savings through reduced use of raw materials for replacement tire or spare tire production.

“These innovations combine to eliminate compressed air to support the vehicle’s load, and result in extraordinary environmental savings: approximately 200 million tires worldwide are scrapped prematurely every year as a result of punctures, damage from road hazards or improper air pressure that causes uneven wear.”