Michelin 2006 Challenge Bibendum Rally

Many paths will lead us forward in our pursuit of sustainable mobility. Nowhere was this more evident than walking among the participants in the 2006 Challenge Bibendum Rally, as the cars were staged at the Champs de Mars gardens in the heart of Paris. Here, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, the public was able to mingle with green car industry leaders and view the wide array of technologies that will propel our future.

The diversity of both fuel alternatives and technology advancements highlighted at the 2006 Challenge Bibendum clearly illustrates that there is more than just a single answer to meeting our transportation needs. Challenge Bibendum serves as a convergence of ideas in a competition designed to fuel enthusiasm and spread the word about clean transportation advancements.

Since launching the Challenge in 1998, Michelin has moved the event to venues around the globe in an effort to tap into regional and emerging transportation issues. The previous Challenge Bibendum was in Shanghai and will likely return to China soon to further explore the vast transportation needs in that part of the world.

Sadly, with the untimely passing of Edouard Michelin just two weeks before the 2006 event in a tragic accident, the Challenge lost perhaps its greatest champion and certainly its heart and soul. The former Michelin CEO was deeply committed to sustainable mobility. Approachable and genuine, Edouard Michelin interacted readily with the hundreds of journalists and participants who attended the Challenge Bibendum events of previous years. Michelin dedicated this year’s Bibendum to Edouard Michelin and pledged to continue the event and his vision of doing the right thing. In his place, Michel Rollier, managing partner of the Michelin Group, restated the mission at hand.

“Challenge Bibendum reflects the shared commitment of a wide variety of automobile stakeholders, including carmakers, equipment manufacturers, energy suppliers, and their technology partners,” said Rollier, emphasizing that the Challenge Bibendum could not exist without the 200 participating organizations and institutions that shared Michelin’s determination to pursue the path to sustainable mobility. That mobility, emphasized Rollier, is one that’s “cleaner, safer, and more fuel efficient, capable of making continuous progress even in a post-oil world.”

The road rally’s real-world driving cycle had participants negotiating the heavy and often aggressive urban traffic in Paris part of the time, with much of the competition
and event activities staged at the CERAM and the Mortefontaine Automobile Test and Research Center north of the city. In addition to the competition, ride-and-drive opportunities, and demonstrations of infrastructure issues such as fueling various alternative fuels, an impressive on-site Learning Center promoted the latest technology advancements from various stakeholders. The Center was organized to include the Bibendum’s three key initiatives – energy challenge, urban mobility, and road safety.

With the recent influence of China on the Challenge, the 2006 event highlighted urban mobility and addressed transportation outside the traditional automotive domain. A wide variety of electric assist bicycles, fuel efficient scooters, and neighborhood electric vehicles were available for a test ride.

While fuel cell and electric vehicle technologies were well represented, much of the emphasis was on clean internal combustion engines powered by a variety of gasoline and alternative fuel sources. Major auto manufacturers participated in the Challenge and showed their latest advancements. This year’s standouts included Volvo’s Multi-Fuel concept and the wild Mercedes-Benz bionic car. The Multi-Fuel Volvo can operate on five different types of fuel including gasoline, E85 ethanol, natural gas, bio-methane, and Hythane, the latter a hydrogen-methane blend. Challenge Bibendum embraces the innovative independent thinkers, too, as evidenced by the off-the-wall yellow bubble-topped Courreges Zoop electric car and the Kesseler K1200, a gasoline or CNG flex-fuel Bugeye Sprite.

There is so much going on at Michelin’s Challenge Bibendum it’s difficult to get your mind around just how important this event is. Michel Rollier summed it up succinctly in his opening ceremony remarks: “The Challenge is a dynamic open forum, where stakeholders from a wide range of public and private sectors from around the world can come to observe, test, gain understanding, and discuss freely. The spirit of the Challenge Bibendum is simply about respecting facts. It’s also about a fierce desire to move forward without delay. It’s the conviction that there’s not just a single solution but a range of solutions that should be developed by creating powerful synergies among researchers, manufacturers, users, and legislators.” Well said.