Company in Maine testing tires with retractable studs

The company is looking to offer safer driving options without road damage.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Studded tires work best on snowy and icy roads across the nation’s snowbelt, but highway officials wince at the damage they cause when roads are dry. Promoters of a new type of winter tire believe they’ve solved the problem with some James Bond-style gadgetry.

Q Tires feature retractable studs that emerge when the driver flicks a switch inside the car. When the snow and ice melt, all it takes is another flip of the switch — and voila — the studs hide back under the treads and the tires are transformed again.

The company’s founder, Michael O’Brien, grew up in southern California and probably never gave much thought to winter tires. But then he married and moved to the Midwest, where he soon grew weary of the ritual of putting the chains on his car and taking them off.

O’Brien hatched the retractable-studded-tire idea and developed a prototype about five years ago. As of March 20, the South Carolina-based company had raised $8.8 million for its startup costs, much of it from individual wealthy investors, said Sean Chariker, the company’s marketing director.

The attention-gripping brand name hints James Bond’s gadget master, Q, and the spiked tires that gave Bond’s Aston Martin extra traction in the 2002 film “Die Another Day.”

“It’s a product which like so many in this country was invented by someone who said, ‘By God, there’s got to be a better way,”’ said Bruce Starr, a company spokesman.

The company plans to have its newfangled tire, dubbed the Q Celsius, in test markets this summer, to be followed by a broader product rollout by the end of the year.

But before that happens, promoters have been visiting northern states like Maine to make sure their product does not run afoul of state rules and regulations.

The problem is, some northern states have laws that prohibit studded tires between spring and fall. As it’s written, Maine’s law would prohibit even tires with retractable studs during the warmer months. So a Maine lawmaker, Sen. Bill Diamond, submitted a bill that will amend the law. Diamond’s bill quietly rolled through the Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. John Baldacci.

Laws were passed last year in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Montana, said Starr, who visited Maine’s State House to tout Diamond’s bill.

Q tires are installed and balanced just like conventional tires, but a wireless signal is used to activate an air chamber inside the tire that causes the studs to appear. Like conventional tires, they can be repaired with a plug or patch at any tire dealer, the company said.

The company, which has a joint venture to manufacture the tires in China, is not affiliated with any major tire manufacturer. The company said the tires meet federal motor vehicle safety standards.

In their presentation to Maine’s Transportation Committee, promoters made no secret that the tires would cost 30 percent more than a comparable winter tire, either with or without studs. But motorists can recoup the extra cost by avoiding the twice-a-year ritual of mounting and un-mounting their snow tires, Starr said.