The N2Revolution: is it actually just a lot of hot air?

You don’t need nitrogen to ensure your tyres are correctly inflated. Optimum tyre inflation using plain old air will give you optimum fuel efficiency, dramatically reduce your tyre wear and prolong the life of your tyres. Indeed, the type of person who’s prepared to pay $7.50 per tyre for nitrogen isn’t going to be looking for the last 20% of life from their car tyres anyway.

We like the idea of using nitrogen in tyres. In mission critical systems (racing, aeronautics etc) it makes perfect sense because the extra few dollars is meaningless compared with the cost of failure, or in th4e case of racing, lack of competitiveness. In industrial systems where every minute of life needs to be extracted from a tyre (mines, agricultural etc), there is an irrefutable case for using nitrogen because there is a professional maintenance system in place to ensure the other parameters in the equation are all optimized too.

But for car tyres for everyday use, we’re not convinced, and we strongly disagree with the founder of the N2Revolution who said at the launch, "While we are aware that we have a superior product, our most important mission is to promote the use of nitrogen as perhaps the single most important factor in proper vehicle maintenance."

You don't need to be a Rhodes scholar to know that the above claim is not true.

The press release from the company also reads: “He added that since most people do not keep their tyres inflated at optimal levels, a primary cause of accidents and fuel inefficiency, drivers will begin to reap the gas saving benefits of this technology and recover the cost of nitrogen inflation several times over within a very short period of time.”

We strongly suspect that is incorrect too, though we’re happy to share the sums with our audience if anyone can provide us with a set of figures to prove the above statement.

It is sad that the claims of this new company have overstepped the mark because the basic principle of using nitrogen instead of air to inflate our car tyres is a good one.