Cooper Tire Europe’s rugged Discoverer A/T3 Sport tyres took their place in the limelight at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, as part of the Chelsea Truck Company’s stand.
The 88th Geneva Motor Show ran from 8-18 March and placed the Cooper brand in front of nearly 700,000 visitors and more than 10,000 of the world’s media.
The VW Amarok caused quite the stir when it was released upon an unsuspecting public 8 years ago, not least as it was (and in fact remains) comfortably the largest European pickup truck on sale. Perhaps that’s one reason why Milltek Sport has just added an exhaust designed for the 3.0 V6 TDI to its ever-expanding range.
In what was a world premiere for the company, Yokohama launches the BluEarth-4S AW21 at the 2018 Geneva Show. The tyre is Yokohama’s first European market all-season tyre and will be available from Autumn 2018. The tyre will initially be available in over 30 sizes, ranging from 255/50R19 107W to 175/65R14 82T and the company plans to gradually expand the line-up of available tyre sizes.
Singapore-based Firenza offers its own range for the highly competitive SUV and 4×4 tyre market sector in the UK and Europe.
In the USA, Bridgestone and Firestone-branded tyres have been specified as original equipment for the 2019 Jeep Cherokee, Bridgestone Americas has announced.
The Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza Plus tyre will be supplied as standard equipment on 2019 Jeep Cherokee Overland models in size 235/50 R19.
Kumho’s 4×4 and SUV tyre range has been further enhanced by the addition of the Crugen HP91 and Crugen KL33 SUV offerings. While there are numerous Kumho 4×4 products from which to choose, the majority of requirements will be covered by these new on-road products, plus the cross-functional new Road Venture patterned MT51 and established KL71. Between them they cover everything from such top end SUVs as the Range Rover and BMW X5 to the ever-popular Land Rover Defender. Because this is an SUV-orientated feature and because they are Kumho’s latest products, here we focus on the HP91 and the KL33 SUV.
As SUVs become kings of the road, demand for larger tyres that deliver on-road comfort and handling growing with them. That’s why Evergreen’s Dyna range includes two SUV tyres which zero in on what really matters to the new breed of motorist dominating the highways.
In a bit to expand its car, 4×4, SUV and light truck tyre range, Turkish tyre manufacturer Petlas has announced that it is launching a new passenger vehicle pattern.
SUVs made up 28 per cent of all European passenger car sales last year, according to automotive market research organisation JATO Dynamics. As research elsewhere in the feature also shows, their phenomenal rise in popularity has created an enormous demand for SUV-specific tyres in larger sizes which still deliver ride comfort, minimal noise and control without sacrificing lifespan.
A month after Pirelli revealed it is making OE tyres to Lamborghini’s first SUV (the Urus) the tyre manufacturer is giving further detail of the six tyres it is supplying. For such an extreme car, which can go from 0-100km/h in 3.6 seconds and from 0-200km/h in 12.8 seconds, with a maximum speed of 305km/h, Pirelli could clearly not develop just a single tyre. Depending on the style and driving mode selected, Pirelli has provided Urus drivers with three families of product: P Zero for lovers of performance, P Zero Corsa for those seeking on-track adrenaline, and Scorpion for those who favour more adventurous driving, off-road as well.
In our February Car Tyre feature, Tyres & Accessories published some of the latest UK tyre replacement market trends data produced by GfK. That data suggested that SUV tyre sales data was a key driver of both increased rim size as well as volume and value growth in the market. This month, as part of our SUV tyres feature, we take a closer look at the trends in the 4×4 and SUV sector specifically and find that the trends are repeated and developed within the sector.
Cooper Tire Europe is showing its SUV and 4×4 product range at this year’s Geneva Motor Show (8-18 March), exhibiting alongside bespoke 4×4 design firm the Chelsea Truck Company at stand 1141.
Cooper Tire sees SUV tyre sector as “unequivocally the fastest-growing in the automotive landscape”, with company representatives pointing out that it therefore represents “a compelling aftersales opportunity for tyre makers”. Motorists in the UK have rushed from their conventional estates and saloons into the ever-growing range of SUVs that have flooded the market over the last 20 years.
Off-road tyre specialist BFGoodrich is throwing its weight behind a team of budding young engineers who are vying for global glory at the world finals of the Land Rover 4×4 in Schools Technology Challenge.
Almost 60 independent tyre dealers attended two extreme driving experience events organised by Micheldever Tyre Services (MTS) to try out General Tire’s Grabber AT3 and Grabber X3 off-road 4×4 tyres. The participating dealers, from MTS’s network of General Tire performance partners, took up the extreme driving challenge at Parkwood Off-Road Centre in Bradford and the Harbour Hill Copse off-road site in Aldermaston near Reading, two of the UK’s most challenging 4×4 proving grounds. The two-day event, which included expert off-road driver training and education about the on and off-road properties of the new 4×4 patterns, was held as a reward for the dealers’ increased sales and customer loyalty.
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