Michelin’s Winter Range Includes New Cold Weather Van Tyre

Michelin has a wide variety of products suitable for the UK winter season, including fitments for smaller city and high performance passenger cars, 4x4s and small vans. The company stresses the importance to the UK market of offering performance in cold, damp conditions as well as in snow or ice.

The Alpin is designed for city cars, small and medium family cars and MPVs, benefiting from an advanced Helio compound containing sunflower oil, which retains flexibility even at very low temperatures. The tread pattern has a complex siping system called StabiliGrip combining excellent grip in all winter conditions with stability at motorway speeds. It is available in sizes between 15 and 18 inches and is speed rated T. The Primacy Alpin is its H and V rated counterpart and is available in 15-17 inch rim sizes. Meanwhile the Pilot Alpin is the winter tyre especially designed and approved for the most powerful cars, exemplified by Michelin’s  approval on the new BMW M3, Mercedes CLS and SLR, Maybach, Porsche Boxster and 911 and, in its “ZP” version, for the BMW 3 Series. Speed rated V and W, it is available in rim sizes 16-20 inches.

In the 4×4 segment, Michelin’s Latitude Alpin is designed for the smaller, multi-purpose vehicle, while its HP cousin is suggested for the higher performance end of the segment. It is approved for the Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes GL, ML and R Class, Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q5, BMW X3 and BMW X5 (in its ZP version). The two tyres cover T, H and V speed ratings, in 15-21 inch sizes.

For cold weather van driving, Michelin has the Agilis Alpin – a new product for 2009. Designed for utility vehicles and vans (over 2.8 tonnes GVW), the tyre aims to provide improved performance in all winter conditions as well as being more economical to run, and more robust compared to its well-respected predecessor, the Agilis 81 Snow-Ice. It is available in fitments between 15 and 16 inches and is speed rated R and T. For smaller models, the Agilis Snow-Ice 51 aims to provide safer winter driving in 14-16 inch sizes, speed rated T.