An all-season sports tyre? Michelin’s CrossClimate 3 Sport: a review 

It’s happened, an all-season sports tyre. Michelin has launched a market first – the all-new CrossClimate 3 Sport, a tyre designed to deliver sporty driving all year around. Blackcircles joined Michelin’s press launch in Geneva and put the tyres to the test in a BMW M235i xDrive to find out more.  

For those not in the know, all-season and sports is a pretty astonishing combination. It requires taking the material capabilities of two extremes and joining them together. All-season tyres must be able to conquer cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers, already a challenge. Then combine this with the requirements of a sports tyre that, typically, needs warmer temperatures — not damp and chilly January mornings — to best perform.  

But Michelin’s no stranger to pushing the boundaries in tyre design. It launched its first generation CrossClimate in 2015, heralding the beginning of the all-season market and responding to the needs of the driving masses. This desire to deliver is echoed in the CrossClimate 3 Sport’s aim to provide a tyre for those “not fully satisfied by an all-season tyre,” shared Laurent Pascal, Product Category Manager at Michelin. Luckily, Michelin has years of experience in sport tyre technology which, when combined with its new tread compound, beckoned in a new age of driving. And we were eager to uncover the results.... 

So, we stepped into BMW’s M235i xDrive, hoping its performance and practicality would offer us the best canvas to explore the CrossClimate 3 Sport tyres. Traversing the Swiss countryside in our sporty Gran Coupe, it felt as if the alpine gods were sprinkling our drive with a mix of weather types, to help give an understanding of how the CrossClimate 3 Sport would perform back in Blighty.  

Driving through a shower of rain and then dealing with the aftermath of the dark clouds on the roads, we were given the opportunity to experience the balanced pairing that allows the CrossClimate 3 Sport to hold the same tyre label grading as the Michelin Pilot Sport 5 while handling all seasons and reaching 3PMSF certification. Which, combined with the M235i’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system, gave us enhanced grip and stability. Plus, thanks to the CrossClimate 3 Sport’s updated serrated sipes expelling the water, the damp roads weren’t a concern as we hurtled along the bucolic B-roads, while the tyre’s wider tread blocks delivered that sporty driving precision. 

These features were further supported by Michelin’s thermal adaptive tread compound 2.0. This nifty innovation adapts itself to ever-changing road conditions; dry, wet or inclement — just a normal Tuesday back home. The mind truly boggles.... 

As we twisted and turned up the ever-tightening corners of the Granges-la-côte, near the French border, the CrossClimate 3 Sport tyres kept up. Michelin’s motorsport legacy — via a hybrid belt of Aramid and Nylon, delivering precise transmission of our steering onto the well-heeled tarmac — gave us the faith to squeeze hard on the acceleration as we left the corners behind, enjoying the M235i’s 306 horsepower- producing turbocharged engine. (Well, as much as Switzerland’s firm speed restrictions will allow.) And, for the turns themselves, even with a scary drop alongside the road, the CrossClimate 3 Sport’s grip and precision, combined with the cool breeze from AC, prevented any buds of sweat rising on our temples.  

True, the CrossClimate 3 Sport won’t compete with the handling of the Pilot Alpin 5 in wintery conditions, but it wasn’t designed to. Even Michelin can accept they aren’t gods... but if you’ve only got one car and it needs to be fun and get you safely from A to B — get the CrossClimate 3 Sport. Or, if you don’t want the hassle of swapping your pleasure car’s rubber with every change in the mercury, the CrossClimate 3 Sport will provide for almost any weather we might see on these green and pleasant lands.  

It’s worth noting that if your particular sporty model edges on the larger side, we’re thinking anything from a JLR’s 626 bhp Range Rover Sport to ‘the most powerful SUV ever’ in Porsche’s Cayenne, the CrossClimate 3 Sport will accommodate SUVs as part of the same line.  

And if your need for speed is fed by the electric persuasion, the CrossClimate 3 Sport will take care of that too, as all Michelin lines are EV-ready. Indeed, this set of rubber delivers piano acoustic tuning technology. In other words, the block sizes and angles are designed to minimise tread noise levels on both new and worn tyres, a definite plus at any speed.  

There may be some out there scratching their heads: an all-season sports tyre? But we find ourselves sold by this nifty innovation, delivering precise handling, whatever the weather. CrossClimate 3 Sport: Yup, we’ll take four please.  

Hero image credit: © MICHELIN 2025 - Charly LOPEZ / DPPI

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