Michelin Malaysia Price: Ever wonder how does tire companies structure their tire prices? In the landscape of ever increasing competition, the usual way is to have a benchmark pricing against your competitor and adjust through there. What if you are the leading technology product? Premium product such as iphone and also dyson vacuum cleaners sets the bar for pricing in its relevant industry and so does Michelin in the tire industry. Let’s have a quick look on their pricing strategy using our data available through our price table.
As from our previous post, we know that the price of a tire is highly related to the tire size. So a quick way to compare the prices would be to choose a size where you have different products in it. For example :
| Size: 205/55R16 | Price (RM) | % |
| Michelin Energy XM2+ | 325 | 0 |
| Michelin Pilot Sport 4 | 398 | +22% |
| Michelin Primacy 4st | 368 | +13% |
The 205/55R16 is a hugely popular size as it covers quite a handful of popular vehicles such as Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Golf, Proton Exora, Mazda 5 and 300 more different types of vehicle specification. Hence it would be wise to offer more than one product in this tire size. From the above table, the product positioning is made clear with the order of Pilot Sport 4, Primacy 4st and last XM2+. Do also note that these are prices that are being sold which includes the margin of the tire shop as well. They might reduce their margin to attract more customer for a particular size but we will evaluate the whole tire line in order to get a more representative comparison.
Retail price = Tire Manufacturer price + Shop Margin.
Table of Contents
XM2+ vs Primacy 4st
There were 6 tire sizes which exist for both products. The various sizes shown below will be used as a basis in analyzing the pricing structure of these 2 products.
| Size | Michelin Energy XM2+, RM | Michelin Primacy 4st , RM |
| 195/60R15 | 256 | 263 (+3% ) |
| 195/65R15 | 256 | 269 (+5% ) |
| 205/55R16 | 325 | 368 (+13% ) |
| 205/60R16 | 350 | 352 (+1% ) |
| 215/60R16 | 345 | 380 (+10% ) |
| 215/65R16 | 417 | 412 (-1% ) |
From the EU label ranking we know that Primacy 4st (A) is one class better in wet braking compare to XM2+(B). The rolling resistance level of Primacy 4st (C) is also much higher in comparison with XM2+(E). With this clear performance advantage, I expect to see a significant price gap between these 2 tire line. In average, the Primacy 4st is roughly about 5% more than the XM2+. It was even surprising to see at the 215/65 R16 size, the 4st is even cheaper than the XM2+ ! To be honest, this is definitely an absolute bargain.
Pilot sport 4 vs Primacy 4st
There are 11 sizes which both the pilot sport 4 and the primacy 4st are available for selection. The tire rim ranges from 16″ till 19″.
| Size | Michelin Primacy 4st, RM | Michelin Pilot Sport 4, RM |
| 205/55R16 | 368 | 398 (+8% ) |
| 215/45R17 | 380 | 418 (+10% ) |
| 215/50R17 | 448 | 528 (+18% ) |
| 215/55R17 | 438 | 478 (+9% ) |
| 225/45R17 | 458 | 495 (+8% ) |
| 225/45R18 | 548 | 598 (+9% ) |
| 225/50R17 | 470 | 548 (+17% ) |
| 235/45R17 | 539 | 628 (+17% ) |
| 235/45R18 | 658 | 698 (+6% ) |
| 245/45R19 | 798 | 869 (+9% ) |
| 255/40R19 | 973 | 978 (+1% ) |
From our previous head to head comparison of these 2 products, we know that apart from aquaplaning, Primacy 4st was able to beat the Pilots sport 4. However due to the product positioning, I do expect Pilot Sport 4 to be marked up higher. In average, the Pilot Sport 4 is roughly about 10% more expensive than Primacy 4st. Highest mark up was observed in the popular 225/50R17 size at a difference of 17%. While surprisingly there was almost no difference in the 255/40 R19 which is kind of strange as this is a UHP size which can usually fetch a premium pricing.
Pilot sport 4 vs Pilot sport 4s
There were also 11 sizes where both the Pilot sports are having the same sizes. They are mostly in the UHP sizes and in the 18″ to 19″ category.
| Size | Michelin Pilot Sport 4 | Michelin Pilot Sport 4S |
| 225/40R18 | 648 | 930 (+44% ) |
| 225/40R19 | 818 | 1045 (+28% ) |
| 225/45R18 | 598 | 955 (+60% ) |
| 235/40R18 | 728 | 1000 (+37% ) |
| 245/35R19 | 938 | 1048 (+12% ) |
| 245/40R19 | 938 | 1248 (+33% ) |
| 255/35R18 | 728 | 1075 (+48% ) |
| 255/40R18 | 788 | 1110 (+41% ) |
| 255/40R19 | 978 | 1328 (+36% ) |
| 265/35R18 | 880 | 1050 (+19% ) |
| 275/35R19 | 1128 | 1328 (+18% ) |
From our previous head to head comparison of these 2 products, we know that Pilot sport 4s is strong in dry and aquaplaning while the Pilot Sport 4 is good at wet, noise and rolling resistance. Hence the performances are quite close to each other. In average, the Pilot Sport 4s is roughly about 34% more expensive than Pilot Sport 4. Highest mark up was observed in the 225/45 R18 size at a difference of +60%.
Summary
The product positioning of Michelin’s product is quite clear. It can be summarize as below:
| Positioning | Product | Price |
| 4 | Michelin Energy XM2+ | – |
| 3 | Michelin Primacy 4st | +5% |
| 2 | Michelin Pilot Sport 4 | +10% |
| 1 | Michelin Pilot Sport 4S | +34% |
However do note that the price performance ratio is certainly not valid for the higher tier products. We believe that the Primacy 4st gives the best performance ratio with its outstanding wet braking and good rolling resistance while being reasonably close to the Pilot Sport 4 and 4s when it comes to dry handling.