During the course of the last decade, the 4×4 vehicle sector has rapidly evolved out of its utilitarian roots and – thanks to the advent of the Sports Utility Vehicle or SUV – become a distinct category of often luxury road-going cars. The speed of this evolution has increased thanks to the arrival of the Crossover Utility Vehicle or CUV. In-turn these changes necessarily impact the make-up and even the definition of the 4×4 tyre market. All this has been further impacted by the European legislation putting pressure on reducing noise levels produced by out-and-out off-road tyres in particular. The result is a market that is now much more SUV than off-road or even mixed-use driven.