Winter Tyres
North American tyre marketers have taken the comical approach to promoting winter tyre use. A recent press release published from Goodyear’s Akron, Ohio HQ asks: “Waiting for Groundhog Day before deciding on winter tyres for the family vehicle?” Instead Dunlop representatives urge drives not to wait until the
”furry prognosticators make their predictions.”
The tyre retail system in countries like Norway, Sweden and Finland presents a fairly unique brand of independent tyre retailing. Perhaps the best demonstration of this can be found in the example of Nordic retail group, Dekk Partner. Tyres & Accessories met the group’s managing director, Leif Kristiansen, and asked what other national markets can learn from the tyre trade in the north of Europe.
The success of the Dekk Partner retail group is quite possibly the European tyre industry’s best-kept secret. Think this is an exaggeration? Just look at the numbers. The group’s collective turnover is expected to reach up to 300 million euros in 2005. In recent years the Nordic tyre retail group has seen its geographical spread, number of branches and, consequently, its turnover grow dramatically.
(Akron/Tire Review) Consumer Reports magazine has rated Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s Assurance TripleTred as best overall in tests of 18 different all-season tyres. The testing was done for the magazine’s annual tyre roundup in its November issue.
(India/Rubber Asia) Talk to motorists in most European countries about retreads and retreading, but don’t expect much more than a blank look in return. If you are lucky enough to strike a cord of recognition, you are likely to be quickly disappointed as soon as it becomes clear that the word retreading is irretrievably confused with terms like recut, regrooved (illegal in the case of car tyres) or part-worn. Somewhere along the line it is obvious that the retread has suffered a serious image problem.
The official inauguration of Nokian Tyres’ new tyre plant will take place today in Vsevolozhsk, Russia. The plant is already in operation, and the first tyres were manufactured in June 2005. Invitations to the ceremony have been sent to Finnish and Russian high-ranking authorities, partners in the construction project, customers, media representatives and the company’s own personnel.
TRW Automotive Goodyear Tire & Rubber have jointly developed a new system that is designed to automatically adjust the performance parameters of a vehicle’s electronic stability control (ESC) system based on the dimensions and other characteristics of the vehicle’s tyres.
Sales of exclusive brands are on the up, Belgian wholesale Deldo has reported. According to the company, its Eurowin, Wanli and Sunny brands make all the difference when it comes to winter sales. This year Deldo says it has increased its capacity of Nexen-produced brand Eurowin up to 550,000 tyres. Furthermore the company claims to have sold approximately half a million already, with over 60 per cent being delivered in the last three months. As far as the South China Tire Company-produced Wanli and Sunny brands are concerned, Deldo reports that stocks of Wanli have already sold out, with only five per cent of its Sunny tyres left.
(Akron/Tire Review) It wasn’t too long ago that some in this industry were ready to declare the winter tyre dead. Popular in Europe and Canada, sales in the US had been, at best, flat for the previous couple of winters. A few suggested that advances in standard passenger and performance offerings were enough to cope with slush, snow and ice.
In the last winter season, the Western European winter car tyre market grew by 7.9 per cent – a fair way above average. During this time some 35.5 million units were sold on the replacement market. As far as the 2005/2006 season is concerned, current Europool figures suggest that it will be another good season for winter and/or cold weather tyres, whatever you call them.
The 4×4 and light truck markets are also likely to demonstrate a continued equalisation between summer and all-season tyres on the one side of the statistics and winter tyres on the other. The European tyre industry claims to be thoroughly prepared in terms of merchandise planning. However one exception is stocks of winter tyres featuring run-flat capabilities.
Nankang’s European winter tyre sales have grown to 10 times the size they were in 2003, the Taiwanese company has reported. According to company representatives, Nankang expects to move some 400,000 units of winter tyres, across Europe, this season. This is something, the company, which was reportedly the first Taiwanese company to produce snow tyres, is understandably proud of. The historically high target is set against previous records of 80,000 tyres in 2004 and 40,000 units in 2003.
Michelin has announced that it plans to compete in the UK’s developing cold-weather tyre market. And the fact that the French company has brought in Dutchman Frank Tanke to head the campaign gives a clear indication of how seriously the manufacturer is taking its latest marketing project. After all, the weather in the Netherlands is not a lot different to the UK, and yet 12 per cent of the total Dutch market is made up of cold-weather sales.
Marangoni Tyre has recently revised and updated its range of winter tyres. In the March issue of Tyres & Accessories, an article featured the company’s latest offering, the Meteo HP; a T-, H- and V-rated winter tyre for rims up to 18” and aspect ratios as low as 40 series. The Meteo HP is designed to cater for the growing demand for high performance tyres that work well in winter conditions.
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In the northern countries of mainland Europe, winter tyres for passenger cars are a fact of life – not only desirable, but in some states, compulsory. But what about trucks? After all, for most people, if the weather is bad then they can take a day off or stay at home, but if you are a trucker with a load of food, fast approaching its sell-by date, then this is not an option.
Certainly there are plenty of trucks out there; one study revealed that almost half of Europe’s goods are transported by road and the number of lorries on the continent’s roads has tripled in the past 30 years. The study also predicts that, if things continue to go on as at present, then by 2010 the number of lorries on the roads of the 15 EU states (before the recent enlargement) will be 50 per cent higher than it was in 1998.
(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT) has added the Blizzak Revo1 to its line of winter tyres. Designed for severe ice or snow conditions and allow a solid grip on wet and dry roads, said BFNAT, the Revo1 features “tube multicell” compound that has embedded particles to improve grip, a cross-rib surface for ice traction, and zig-zag siping for traction and water and slush dispersion. The Blizzak Revo1 is available in 11 Q-speed rated sizes, and has a non-directional tread design for 65- and 60-series sizes and a directional tread for 55- and 45-series sizes.
Nokian Tyres is improving the safety and comfort of driving by introducing the runflat property to its most important winter tyre models. If a flat occurs, the driver can drive on runflat tyres for about 100 km to reach a tyre store or service station where a new tyre can be fitted. The runflat property allows drivers to avoid danger and difficult tyre changes amid busy traffic.
Use of runflat tyres in increasing at a very quick rate. Although runflat products held only a small share of the European tyre market in 2004 (about 0.25%), sales saw a threefold increase over the previous year. Half of the runflat products sold were winter tyres. This year sales are expected to increase even more.
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