Having previously been ruled out of the running to buy Kumho Tire, Qingdao, China-based manufacturer Doublestar Tire is once again in pole-position to buy the South Korean tyremaker. “Doublestar Tire is the best option in view of a fast restoration of Kumho Tire and its corporation in China and the minimization of our losses”, Kumho’s creditors said in a widely reported statement.
Bridgestone has signed a tyre partnership with online supermarket Ocado. The manufacturer will supply its home delivery fleet, encompassing more than 1,500 Mercedes Sprinter vans, with the Blizzak W810, which will stay on each vehicle all year round following rigorous internal testing. It is Bridgestone’s biggest UK van tyre fleet win to date.
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.
When one German publication releases a tyre test, you can be sure that more will follow. Within the past week we’ve reported test results from Auto Bild, Gute Fahrt and Autozeitung, and now it’s our pleasure to summarise the findings of the summer tyre test presented by motoring organisation ADAC.
Bandvulc has secured a three-year contract to provide fleet maintenance services to keep John Lewis Partnership vehicles on the road 24/7, 365 days a year. The fleet service provider states that its retention of the blue-chip contract until October 2020 came following a lengthy and complex tender process last year. Bandvulc will provide support for the John Lewis and Waitrose fleet from its call centre in Devon. Its BVPlus+ fleet management contracts service more than two-thirds of the UK’s supermarket activity.
Zenises’s new tyre subscription business, Cartyzen, has been introduced by the company’s CEO, Harjeev Kandhari, at Tire Technology Expo in Hannover, Germany. The company plans to launch a full service business in Spain, making it the first country in the world to have a full-scale tyre subscription service, following a trial of the model in Germany.
A glance at the archives of Tyres & Accessories’ global tyre manufacturer rankings reveals that the ‘Big Three’ are quite stable fixtures at the top of the table. However, new analysis from Astutus Research suggests that the perennial fourth-placed Continental Tire could be about to break the stranglehold of Bridgestone, Michelin, and Goodyear in the passenger car and light truck tyre segment (PCLT). According to Astutus’s latest report, the German manufacturer appears to have closed the gap on Goodyear, and is set to jump up a place in the rankings.
Summer tyres share the limelight with all-season tyres in the latest test from Gute Fahrt. The German car magazine has evaluated the merits of nine V-speed rated size 205/55 R16 summer tyres and, perhaps for those who’ve noticed that winter isn’t quite over yet, three all-season products that are also approved for speeds of up to 149mph or 240km/h. The tyres were mounted on Volkswagen Group cars – the VW Golf, Seat Leon and Skoda Oktavia – for testing, and this was carried out at the Pirelli proving ground in Vizzola, near Milan. Testing covered the usual criteria – braking and handling in the wet and dry, aquaplaning, wet circular track performance as well as characteristics such as rolling resistance, comfort and noise.
From studs to autonomous driving technology and including the latest winter tyres available, Continental AG has demonstrated a range of innovations designed to move the company (and motorists) towards its Vision Zero goal. Indeed, “our goal is to achieve zero road traffic accidents”, Conti CEO Elmer Degenhart is on the record as saying, summarising what Continental is aiming to do.
It may be early in the year, but thanks to Auto Bild the first summer tyre test results from Europe are already with us. The German car magazine has stuck with its jumbo-sized format and evaluated a wide field of contenders for its 2018 summer test, with lower-performing tyres eliminated in a qualification round. Results from this initial round have now been released.
Consumers are increasingly likely to research their tyres online pre-purchase, regardless of whether they complete an e-commerce transaction. Peer review website Tyre Reviews has therefore become an influential destination in the car tyre market: discussing Tyre Reviews’s audience, owner, Jonathan Benson, states that 94 per cent of Tyre Reviews visitors are engaged in the tyre buying process, with its users predominantly “high earning, well educated, male automotive enthusiasts looking for the best possible product for their vehicle.” In 2017, the site delivered 25 million pageviews to tyre buyers, and claims to have influenced around “one-sixth of UK tyre sales.”
Prometeon Tyre Group has announced a new organisation structure in order to “strengthen its presence in the different markets in which it operates” and “to continue the integration process with the Aeolus group”.
The following appointees will report directly to Prometeon’s chairman and CEO, Giorgio Luca Bruno:
In addition to its latest motorsport developments, Yokohama used the Autosport International show to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its flagship Advan car tyre range, launching a runflat version of the leading Advan Sport V105 tyre. Available in a number of key sizes from 16” – 20”, the Advan Sport V105 ZPS is designed as a replacement tyre for a number of rear wheel drive executive saloons fitted with runflat tyres as standard, the manufacturer states.
The rollout of a new Continental solid tyre range for industrial trucks began last month. This new line-up is available in four versions – SC20+, CS20+, CSEasy SC20+ and SH12+ – and all come with Continental’s new ‘Plus’ compound, which is said to combine the advantages of high mileage with low rolling resistance. Continental states it is also streamlining its solid tyre range, bringing benefits to customers with a more transparent, simplified choice of products.
The Michelin Group has purchased a 20 per cent share in German automotive services provider A.T.U. (Auto-Teile-Unger). The minority stake was acquired from French automotive maintenance and repair services group Mobivia Groupe for 60 million euros; following the acquisition, Mobivia and Michelin intend to combine their expertise in order to further develop A.T.U. in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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