Trelleborg Wheel Systems will debut its EMR1025 all-season commercial tyre for loaders and graders. The manufacturer states that the tyre delivers premium damage protection and durability while adding extra comfort. Its is designed to be a suitable year-round fitment, providing enhanced grip on snow and ice. This offers a potential cost saving for operators, as it eliminates the cost and downtime of seasonal changeovers.
Firestone has released its first all-season tyre for European light trucks. The Vanhawk Multiseason offers winter-ready, fuel efficient performance for year-round use in all weather conditions, Firestone adds. It targets increased business efficiency for small-medium sized fleet operations and private van drivers. With the launch of the Vanhawk Multiseason, the Bridgestone group now has a multi-tier offer for the all-season van segment. It launched the Bridgestone Duravis All Season, a first for its eponymous brand too, last week.
ZC Rubber will add 68 new sizes to its Z-series winter tyre lines. The Chinese manufacturer, based in Hangzhou, says the new sizes aim to meet the diverse demands of European customers. They are designed for the wet and snowy road conditions typical of the continent’s winters. The new sizes will be available across its All Elite Season Z-401, Zupersnow Z-507, and Icemaster Spike Z-506 products. The tyres will be available for the 2020/21 winter season. ZC Rubber launched the Z-401 all-season tyre, the Z-507 winter tyre, and the studded winter tyre Z-506 in Europe last year. It tells Tyres & Accessories that the three Z-series lines “have gained great popularity with sales exceeding expectations.”
Bridgestone has launched its first-ever all-season tyre for the light truck segment. The Duravis All Season has a robust and durable construction, for longevity and reduced downtime periods. It also has A-grade wet grip on the EU tyre label, alongside Three Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) and Mud and Snow (M+S) certification. Bridgestone says the tyre targets both small and large fleets looking to maximise business efficiency on the same tyres year-round.
Private brand Nordexx, from Denmark’s NDI Group, has launched its first all-season tyre for cars and vans. The NA6000 targets “a gap in the market for affordable all-season tyres,” Admir Ramic, Nordexx export manager, tells Tyres & Accessories. The Nordexx brand is exported to 61 countries around the world.
Tyre maker Hankook had rounded off its 2020 off-road car tyre range with the Dynapro AT2, an all-round 4×4 tyre that features winter tyre accreditation. The Hankook Dynapro AT2 takes over from the Dynapro AT M. This covers the needs of all those customers who require high traction and safety with their off-road vehicle both on and off paved roads. Thanks to the 3PMSF symbol on the sidewall, drivers can now drive legally all year round with this tyre. The line-up covers all popular sizes in this category from 15 to 22 inches.
Having hinted at its impending introduction in February, Goodyear has launched the Vector 4Seasons Gen-3. The most recent instalment in its award-winning range of all-season tyres, Goodyear’s latest generation tyre is designed to provide “improved snow, wet and dry performance”.
All-season tyres offer safety in a wide range of weather conditions and have gained a lot of traction within the passenger car segment. But what about campervans – is all-season a good choice of tyre for those hoping to squeeze in a belated post-lockdown holiday? Auto Bild Reisemobil fitted eight sets of all-season campervan tyres to a VW Crafter with a 600 kilogramme payload and put them through their paces to check performance in dry, wet and snowy conditions.
Bridgestone has launched the Weather Control A005 EVO tyre, the second generation of its all-season touring tyre. The tyre is designed to meet the needs and expectations of European drivers, built using Bridgestone’s advanced, high silica NanoPro-tech compound technology. Its new mixing technology that improves silica dispersion. This allows the A005 EVO to offer enhanced fuel efficiency alongside improved winter performance. Like its predecessor, the Weather Control A005, Bridgestone’s new EVO edition has been designed to deliver year-round control, safety, and convenience, reengineered to offer additional performance benefits.
After several months of test production, Nokian Tyres’ new factory in the USA has begun making tyres destined for retail sale. Now that the tyre maker has reached this milestone on schedule, it will steadily increase volume throughout the year and will continue growing it until reaching an annual capacity of four million tyres by 2023.
Nokian Tyres has traditionally focused first and foremost on winter tyres, and these products currently account for around 70 per cent of the company’s passenger vehicle tyre business. But a reputation as a winter specialist means the brand hasn’t gained significant traction in markets where winter tyres find little favour, such as the UK. The tyre maker intends to rectify this.
Goodyear claims that it has achieved an industry first, having developed an all-season tyre with both the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) sidewall marking an A-rated fuel efficiency on the EU tyre label. The new tyre, which Goodyear confirmed to Tyres & Accessories is the third generation of its test-winning Vector 4Seasons line, was conducted jointly by Goodyear’s technology teams in Luxembourg and Germany, in conjunction with original equipment manufacturers, leveraging tread pattern developments present in its all-season lines for the replacement market, as well as new rubber compounding formulations.
Last month we heard that, according to the latest market data collated by analysts at GfK, both the value and the volume of the overall sell-out UK car tyre replacement market decreased in 2019. However, the value-rich SUV tyre sub-segment and its all-season tyre sub niche continue to show encouraging signs of growth. So, with this in mind, the March magazine’s SUV tyre feature takes a closer look at the latest trends in this particular market space.
In January GfK’s “panelmarket” identified SUV tyres and all-season tyres as top two growing sub-segments in 2019. Indeed, since all-season tyre sales have shot up 19 per cent in terms of value and 13 per cent up in volume, the UK market is now selling four times as many all-season tyres as winter tyres sold at their peak. Within this, high performance tyres and bigger size tyres, specifically 17-inch and over, are growing fastest (see separate article for further details).
Evidence from a number of market research sources concurs – increasing numbers of motorists are choosing all-season tyres for their cars. The first indication came from GfK data, which compared the percentage growth of all-season tyre sales reported by its UK panelmarket (in terms of volume and value) in 2018 with seasonal tyre sales during 2019. Winter tyre sales volumes were down 1 per cent last year. During the same period, winter tyre values fell three times faster (down 3 per cent).
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Trelleborg Wheel Systems
Firestone
ZC Rubber
Bridgestone
Nordexx
Hankook
Goodyear
Auto Bild Reisemobil
Bridgestone