Improved efficiency & safety: Continental debuts AllSeasonContact 2

Several tyre firms claim bragging rights as all-season early adopters, and Continental isn’t one of them. Continental launched its first all-season tyre for Europe as recently as 2017, dipping its toe in the market with a modest 34-size range that covered 57 per cent of the segment. Demand for the AllSeasonContact grew quickly, as did Continental’s enthusiasm for these products. This year it is introducing a successor.

During a launch event for the new AllSeasonContact 2 late in May, Tobias Rahn remarked that Continental “attaches great importance to the all-season segment.” As evidence of this burgeoning affection, he pointed to expansion in the original AllSeasonContact range over the years until the line-up covered 83 per cent of the market in 2021. Now with the arrival of the second-generation tyre, this coverage approaches 88 per cent.

“Ensuring market availability is important and that is why 99 sizes are coming in the first introductory phase this year,” says Rahn, who is Product Manager All-Season EMEA within Continental’s Tires business. Continental aims to deliver the AllSeasonContact 2 to dealers and garages across the UK from July. Sizes start at 15-inch and go up to 21-inch, with demand for 14-inch tyres continuing to be met by the predecessor product. New dimensions are, perhaps unsurprisingly, largely grouped at the higher end of the size scale. The launch range includes five tyres with self-supporting run-flat technology and eight with ContiSeal.

AllSeasonContact 2 has more tread rubber, which is said to improve handling & dry braking (Photo: Tyrepress.com / Stephen Goodchild)

Safety & more miles

The original AllSeasonContact gained a reputation for being an all-rounder with a slight bias towards winter performance, and Continental has high expectations for its successor. “We want to make sure we have the best all-season tyre on the market and that was our goal with the AllSeasonContact 2,” comments Catherine Loss, Head of Program Management EMEA. “We have kept the main safety performance criteria at the same level while increasing mileage by at least 15 per cent and increasing efficiency, which means this tyre can drive one season longer than its predecessor.”

According to Continental, mileage that delivers an extra season of motoring is exactly what a quarter of buyers are looking for when selecting an all-season tyre. More about this later, but first the criteria that 59 per cent of buyers value above all others – safety. As always, tread, compound and construction all have their own role to play.

The V-shaped tread pattern of the AllSeasonContact 2 features C-shaped tread blocks that create water channels leading toward the sidewalls of the tyre and facilitating drainage. Furthermore, the many C-shaped blocks in the middle of the pattern support one another, ensuring precise handling throughout the tyre’s service life.

According to Catherine Loss, Continental’s goal is to “have the best all-season tyre on the market” (Photo: Tyrepress.com / Stephen Goodchild)

Blending the Chili

As for the compound, Edwin Goudswaard, Continental’s Head of R&D Car Tires Replacement, considers it “incredibly difficult” for compounding experts to produce a good summer tyre compound and even harder to develop an all-season compound that can effectively cover a much broader range of requirements. Such a compound must provide an all-season tyre with 3PMSF capabilities without being too soft. “The solution was to take the various ‘Chili’ solutions we use,” he explains.

A chilli’s colour indicates specific characteristics, and it’s the same with the spicy range from Continental: Yellow Chili is optimised for mileage and robustness, Green Chili for fuel efficiency. Tyres containing the Red Chili compound have a particular affinity for performance on wet and dry roads, while Black Chili is there for grip. The unlikely-named Cool Chili compound takes care of winter performance.

Edwin Goudswaard explains that Continental has blended its various Chili compounds for the AllSeasonContact 2 (Photo: Tyrepress.com / Stephen Goodchild)

Goudswaard enjoys cooking and has been mastering his chilli con carne of late, therefore he appreciates the approach taken when developing the AllSeasonContact 2’s compound: “Our chemists created a recipe by blending the Chili compounds into a suitable mixture.” Continental calls this concoction Chili Blend and describes it as follows: “New plasticisers with a high damping effect ensure secure grip and precise steering response in cold, wintry conditions. A new polymer composition offers good adhesion together with short braking distances on both dry and wet roads, even in hot summer weather. And there is also a newly developed, flexible elastomer network that adapts to the road surface, thereby lowering wear and increasing mileage.”

Stop short, stop safely

Optimised patterns and a blend of Chili are all well and good, but what does this mean for tyre safety? Continental was kind enough to give us a taste of how AllSeasonContact 2 stacks up in the wet alongside a budget brand all-season tyre made by one of the largest firms in the business. Performing emergency braking from 80km/h / 50mph on a wet road, the car fitted with Continental tyres stopped some 15 to 20 metres shorter than the budget-shod vehicle. Or as one of Continental’s tyre experts put it, the car wearing budget tyres was still travelling at around 40km/h or 25mph at the point where the AllSeasonContact 2 had brought the vehicle and its occupants to a safe stop.

An enormous step forward

Continental’s tyre developers took a two-pronged approach when increasing efficiency in the AllSeasonContact 2. First, they tackled rolling resistance – sometimes in unexpected areas. “Optimising rolling resistance in the tread area almost inevitably leads to a compromise in handling or wet braking,” observes Goudswaard. “These characteristics are direct competitors, but with the AllSeasonContact 2 we have focused on other components inside the tyre.”

Examples of this inward-looking approach include a new inner liner compound. “We’ve optimised this in regard to rolling resistance. In addition, we’ve optimised the rubber coating on the tyre’s casing to further lower rolling resistance.” Goudswaard concedes that modifying a key structural component such as the tyre casing required extensive testing over a prolonged period. “But when we optimised both these components for rolling resistance, we gained an additional six per cent improvement in performance without compromising other characteristics. This is an enormous step forward for a tyre.”

Efficiency is also how long a tyre lasts, and this brings us back to the promised extra season of driving. Goudswaard explains the science behind this added longevity: “We worked on pattern to create a better footprint, as although the first generation AllSeasonContact was by no means a bad tyre, we observed force and thus high energy levels in both the area where the footprint began and where it ended. These are the main points where wear takes place.”

The AllSeasonContact 2 tread pattern features sipes and the aforementioned self-reinforcing C-blocks, and Goudswaard says these optimise the footprint to reduce force at the end of the footprint. “There’s still sufficient force at the other end to provide grip when braking or accelerating, but at the other end we’ve eliminated the additional pressure that leads to wear.”

Dekra confirms mileage potential

Continental’s own testing shows that AllSeasonContact 2 lasts 15 per cent longer than the predecessor model. “But these are just our own tests, so we also asked Dekra to give us an independent test result,” says Goudswaard. Dekra compared the AllSeasonContact 2 in size 205/55 R16 against its predecessor and three competitor tyres.

Test results indicate a 20 per cent improvement in mileage over the original AllSeasonContact and an even greater mileage gap when compared with its rivals from Michelin, Bridgestone and Hankook. “From the Dekra results, we believe 15 per cent (of this improvement) comes from the tread and five per cent from the compound.”

Generational improvements

Continental claims generational performance improvements in almost all areas – in addition to 15 per cent more mileage and six per cent lower rolling resistance, the AllSeasonContact 2 reportedly lifts its dry braking and handling game by five per cent and improves its wet braking performance by four per cent. Comfort and snow performance are at the same level as for the prior-generation tyre.

This Continental spider chart shows generational improvements in most key areas (Photo: Tyrepress.com / Stephen Goodchild)

Only one point on the spider chart falls below levels achieved by the predecessor. This is aquaplaning, whose performance is 98 per cent. Goudswaard doesn’t see this as an issue: “Aquaplaning is a very important aspect to consider, as everyone who has experienced it knows. With the AllSeasonContact we already had a product with a very high level of aquaplaning protection – a very open tread and good water evacuation properties. As we’ve given the AllSeasonContact 2 tread a little more rubber, aquaplaning performance is a touch lower. But we believe it is still at a very high level. That means we continue to view aquaplaning performance as being on par with the AllSeasonContact. But thanks to the addition of more rubber, the AllSeasonContact 2 has much better handling and dry braking characteristics.”

Growth into UHP territory

EU tyre label grades for the AllSeasonContact 2 are ‘B’ for wet grip, rolling resistance and external rolling noise. As an all-season tyre, it bears the M+S mark and 3PMSF ‘snowflake’ symbol that is required for winter use in some markets.

Production of the 99-size launch range begins in June. Market coverage includes most electric vehicles, suitability that Continental denotes with the inclusion of its new EV-Compatible logo on the sidewall. Tobias Rahn shares that a second phase of product releases in the second year, 2024-25, will see more than 50 further new AllSeasonContact 2 sizes come to market. “Many of these will be in the larger sizes and will take us into the UHP segment.”

A new sidewall logo indicates suitability for use on EVs (Photo: Tyrepress.com / Stephen Goodchild)

With a line-up now covering 87.7 per cent of segment demand and the promise of further additions that will boost the range up to some 150 sizes, Continental appears well positioned to continue the success enjoyed with its initial all-season tyre. Catherine Loss believes so at any rate, and her words fittingly summarise the tyre maker’s thoughts on the AllSeasonContact 2: “We have an amazing product and have made leaps with respect to product performance.”