Greenlight 1:43 2019 Ford Transit High Roof: Michelin Tires

The Ford Transit is a range of light commercial vehicles produced by Ford since 1965. Sold primarily as a cargo van, the Transit is also built as a passenger van (marketed as the Ford Tourneo since 1995), minibus, cutaway van chassis, and as a pickup truck. Over 8,000,000 Transit vans have been sold, making it the third best-selling van of all time and have been produced across four basic platform generations (debuting in 1965, 1986, 2000, and 2013 respectively), with various "facelift" versions of each.

The first product of the merged Ford of Europe, the Transit was marketed through Western Europe and Australia; by the end of the twentieth century, it was marketed nearly globally with the exception of North America until 2013 when it replaced the Ford E-Series in 2015. The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for forty years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic trademark applying to any light commercial van in the Transit's size bracket.While initially designed for the European market, the Ford Transit is now produced in Asia, North America, and Europe for worldwide buyers. Upon production in North America, the Transit won second place in Motor Trend's 2015 'Truck of the Year' award, behind the newly introduced mid-size Chevrolet Colorado pickup and ahead of the new Ford F-150.

Michelin is a French tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world after Bridgestone and larger than both Goodyear and Continental. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Tigar, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) tyre brands. Michelin is also notable for its Red and Green travel guides, its roadmaps, the Michelin stars that the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, and for its company mascot Bibendum, colloquially known as the Michelin Man.

Michelin's numerous inventions include the removable tyre, the pneurail (a tyre for Rubber-tyred metros) and the radial tyre.

Michelin manufactures tyres for space shuttles, aircraft, automobiles, heavy equipment, motorcycles, and bicycles. In 2012, the Group produced 166 million tyres at 69 facilities located in 18 countries.

In 1889 two brothers, Édouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre, and he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on 28 May 1889. In 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre which was used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. Conditions at these plantations led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do.

Michelin's domination of the supply of rubber in French Indochina led to the Phu Rieng Do strike in 1930. This resulted in France investigating Michelin's treatment of workers on its rubber plantations.

In 1934, Michelin introduced a tyre which, if punctured, would run on a special foam lining, a design now known as a run-flat tyre (self-supporting type).

Michelin developed and patented a key innovation in tyre history, the 1946 radial tyre, and successfully exploited this technological innovation to become one of the worlds leading tyre manufacturers. The radial was initially marketed as the "X" tyre. It was developed with the front-wheel-drive Citroën Traction Avant and Citroën 2CV in mind. Michelin had bought the then-bankrupt Citroën in the 1930s. Because of its superiority in handling and fuel economy, use of this tyre quickly spread throughout Europe and Asia. In the U.S., the outdated bias-ply tyre persisted, with market share of 87% in 1967.

In 1966, Michelin partnered with Sears to produce radial tyres under the Allstate brand and was selling 1 million units annually by 1970.

In 1968, Michelin opened its first North American sales office, and was able to grow that market for its products rapidly; by 1989 the company had 10% market share for OEM tyres purchased by American automobile makers.

Also in 1968, Consumer Reports, an influential American magazine, acknowledged the superiority of the radial construction, setting off a rapid decline in Michelin's competitor technology. In the U.S., the radial tyre now has a market share of 100%.

In addition to the private label and replacement tyre market, Michelin scored an early OEM tyre win in North America, when it received the contract for the 1970 Continental Mark III, the first American car with radial tyres fitted as standard.

In 1989, Michelin acquired the recently merged tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American firms B.F. Goodrich Company (founded in 1870) and Uniroyal, Inc. (founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company) from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Uniroyal Australia had already been bought by Bridgestone in 1980. This purchase included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tyres to the U.S. Space Shuttle Program.

Michelin also controls 90% of Taurus Tyre in Hungary, as well as Kormoran, a Polish brand.

As of 1 September 2008, Michelin is again the world's largest tyre manufacturer after spending two years as number two behind Bridgestone. Michelin produces tyres in France, Poland, Spain, Germany, the USA, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Italy and several other countries. On 15 January 2010, Michelin announced the closing of its Ota, Japan plant, which employs 380 workers and makes the Michelin X-Ice tyre. Production of the X-Ice will be moved to Europe, North America, and elsewhere in Asia.