Winter Tyres
A ceremony held on 20 January marked the official opening of Yokohama Rubber’s new winter tyre testing facility in Japan. The ribbon on the Tire Test Center of Hokkaido (TTCH) was cut by a number of dignitaries, including Yokohama Rubber president Hikomitsu Noji and Masahito Nishikawa, mayor of host city Asahikawa.
With the temperatures already plummeting across the UK after a mild winter to date, Bridgestone is urging motorists to take some simple driving tips to stay as safe as possible – with or without a set of winter tyres. A marked drop in temperatures is now already being felt and snow is predicted for parts of the UK, and Bridgestone’s managing director Robin Shaw has thus called on motorists to adopt some simple driving habits to stay as safe as possible.
Allianz Global Assistance UK, the roadside assistance expert, says that 1 in 5 calls it receives during January relate to tyre issues and, as predictions of snow to fall across the UK in the coming week hit headlines, the company is urging drivers to ‘be prepared’ by fitting winter tyres. This, says Allianz, will not only reduce braking distances by as much as 50 per cent in snow and ice, but can enable a car to stop 11 metres earlier on icy roads when travelling at just 20mph, making a crucial difference to road safety at this time of year.
Continental has recently launched a new winter tyre for light trucks and vans, helping these increasingly important commercial vehicles remain mobile and safe in cold weather conditions. The tyre possesses good safety properties on snowy and icy surfaces and, in comparison with the VancoWinter 2, significantly improved fuel efficiency with a 15 per cent reduction in rolling resistance. Conti says its advanced silica compound reduces deformation in the contact area and therefore energy loss, while the tyre’s structure has also been improved.
The winter tyre business is weather-dependent, and the milder temperatures seen in Europe at the start of the season haven’t been good news for manufacturers of these products. Bloomberg reports that Continental has experienced reduced demand for its winter tyres at the end of 2015. The tyre maker told Bloomberg that this season’s winter tyre sales will “probably will be slightly below levels of a year ago.”
Point S Development’s existing network in Sweden has joined forces with Däckteam to form the largest independent tyre dealer network in the country.
What happens when a vehicle manufacturer replaces alloy and rubber with ice? Wonder no longer – a team of UK ice sculpture specialists was commissioned by Lexus to answer this question by fitting a Lexus NX with a unique set of wheels and tyres made from frozen water.
Speaking at the end of a presentation at Continental’s annual ContiTechnikForum, Prof Dr Burkhard Wies, Conti’s head of Tire Line development worldwide commented on the development of the winter and all-season tyres as a sector. This is nothing new. Wies has, of course, tracked the market for some time and has commented on this subject before. What’s different now is that, during the course of 2015, the sector broadened from three segments (winter, all-season and summer tyres) to something more like four (winter, all-season concept I, all-season concept II and summer tyres).
What a difference 15 years makes. Perhaps the most interesting example Continental offered was its “Evolution of Winter Tire Performance” demonstration at this year’s ContiTechnikForum in Finland. In short Continental invited journalists and tyre testers to experience the performance gap between the ContiWinterContact TS 790 V’s turn of the millennium technology and what the new WinterContact TS 860 has to offer. The twist was that – in order to emphasise the difference – the old tyre was fitted to a new BMW 1-series and the new tyre was fitted to a 15-year old 3-series. Not having the benefit of the latest braking and on-board electronics technology, this gave the advantage to the old tyre and put the new tyre at a theoretical disadvantage.
Mediterranean tyre brand Membat is encouraging drivers to change their tyres before the Christmas holidays.
“Ideally, November is a good month to take a look into the car and change to winter tyres. But it is never too late if you haven’t done it already, you can still change your tyres before the upcoming holiday season,” company representatives wrote in a statement on the subject.
Norbar has warned British drivers to check their wheel nut torque if they are changing their vehicles over to winter tyres in the coming weeks.
The advantages of winter tyres have been understood in Europe for many years, with tens of millions of motorists changing their wheels to those fitted with winter tyres in October or November and back again in the spring. In fact, so great is the change in Europe that it creates a significant spike in torque wrench demand from tyre fitters and drivers, eager to ensure that wheel nuts are tightened correctly.
Continental AG has launched the WinterContact TS 860 winter tyre, which the company describes as “a new winter specialist for compact and mid-range models”. The TS860 builds on the reputation of the multi-award winning ContiWinterContact TS 850, which has won tyre tests through-out its product life, including in 47 comparative tests run by the European trade press, automobile clubs and consumer organisations.
Ivalo is the destination of choice for many tyre makers when it comes to testing winter and cold weather products, and Hankook Tire has announced plans to establish its own European winter tyre testing facility near the Finnish village. The company recently signed a contract to build this together with Test World Oy.
Michelin has acquired the “Fox Farm” artic test centre in Ivalo, Finland in order to “reinforce its testing and approval operations for winter tyres for passenger cars, vans and trucks”.
Michelin, which made the purchase through its Michelin European Technology Centre, reports that it has operated the site for more than 20 years on an exclusive basis, regularly carrying out its testing and approval operations for winter tyres there. According to the company, the purchase guarantees Michelin can control its own test equipment and “top up” its winter testing resources, which range from Alpine passes to the Finnish plains as well as indoor infrastructures.
Auto Express has published the results of various tests it performed with Goodyear to measure the difference in winter braking distance when tweaking one particular tyre characteristic, and one finding is especially worth reporting as we head into the coldest part of the year. The distance it takes to stop a car doesn’t just vary depending on your choice of winter tyre – it can vary a lot.
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