High And Ultra High Performance Tyres

Since 1999 the trend in car sales in Europe is downwards. If one million cars are sold a year, that is five million tyres which will not supplied as original equipment. But luxury and premium class cars, sporty cars and luxury SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles) were not included in the negative trend and in some niches sales even rose.

High performance vehicles need high performance tyres. Whereas standard tyres with a T speed rating have lost market share over recent years, tyres with speed ratings H and higher have increased market share. The average horse power of the car parc in Europe is rising year by year.

People talk about fuel saving cars, but buy more and more vehicles with more powerful engines.Within the car tyre segment, the sub segment of high performance (hp) and even ultra high performance (uhp) tyres is growing; this part of the market is very dynamic. But changes are on the horizon: until now the flood of newly introduced upper class cars made it necessary to fit hp or uhp tyres, but now this market seems to be saturated.

On the other hand more and more middle class and even compact cars have engines allowing top speeds of more than 200 km/h – and also need this type of tyres.And the higher the car segment, the longer the cars “live”. Now all these cars introduced in the 90s need replacement tyres.

In the year 2000 in Europe 19 percent of all replacement tyres had the speed ratings V/W/Y/Z, in 2005 it will be 33 percent. These cars need high value tyres a second and a third time and this means an optimistic outlook for tyre dealers. Especially if we consider that the ties between drivers and the car dealers will become weaker and weaker year by year.

The drivers will no longer buy the tyres from the BMW or Jaguar dealer but from a tyre dealer.In original equipment the demand in hp and uhp tyres will also improve but not as dramatically as in the aftermarket. But there is a new trend which is also positive: more and more cars will be fitted with runflats.

And because these tyres are more expensive than “normal” tyres the first introductions happen on upper class vehicles. Most runflats are also hp and uhp tyres because every new invention in car production is offered first in this segment. Remember ABS, ESP or airbags.