Yokohama has announced that it will supply an Advan branded control tyre for a new race series that will form part of the support package for the Advan-equipped 2007 FIA World Touring Car Championship. Currently called Formula S2000, the new series will feature identical single-seater chassis powered by a 250bhp four-cylinder engine and running on control Yokohama Advan tyres.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has announced that it is to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in New Delhi, India in January 2007. Named Yokohama India, the new company will initially operate as a tyre sales and marketing company. However, in the future, it is planned to become Yokohama’s local headquarters in India for coordinating any future expansion of business such as manufacturing tyres and marketing automotive hoses and sealants. It will have a start-up capitalisation equivalent to approximately 50 million yen (334,468 euros).
(Akron/Tire Review) US-based Yokohama Tire Corp. has hired former Bridgestone/Firestone executive Michael Baggett as its eastern region OTR sales manager, and promoted Tim Easter to national OTR fleet and OEM manager. According to Gary Nash, Yokohama’s director of OTR sales, Baggett will be responsible for OTR sales across states along the Atlantic Ocean, spanning from Florida to Maine, and Easter will focus on national account and OE business. Previously, Baggett also served as senior vice president for Cobre Tire and as national OTR director for Michelin’s Tire Centers Inc. unit.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. has announced that its Advan Sport (V103) tyre has been approved by Brabus GmbH of Germany for its Brabus Rocket. Tyres will supplied n size 255/35ZR19 (96Y) for the front and 285/30ZR19 (98Y) for the rear. Yokohama Rubber have also been approved for the Brabus MV12 sport utility vehicle (SUV).
The UK distributor of TSW wheels, Yokohama HPT, has announced the launch of five new designs which have now been introduced into the UK market. The wheels all offer TSW’s trademark quality and style and – according to the company – any car owner looking to individualise their vehicle will find something to their taste and style in the TSW range.
First up is the Holsten, an almost-full face wheel with seriously European undertones. It features a centre-cap to conceal the mounting nuts, giving uninterrupted lines. The Holsten is available in sizes from 9×18 to 10×22 and in silver or chrome finishes.
Yokohama was involved in yet another world record recently, when it supplied tyres for ‘Flat Out’, the lowest car in the world. The Fiat 500 was built by custom specialist Andy Saunders over the weekend of the recent Beaulieu Autojumble, starting as a standard car and ending up with an overall height of just 213/8in (543mm) from the ground.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., is offering an extended casing warranty on Bandag retreads. Dusseldorf-based Yokohama Europe GmbH, and Brussels-based Bandag NV will undertake the warranty programme as part of a marketing collaboration arrangement between the two companies. A brochure released by the two companies summed up the arrangement like this: “Yokohama has extended the casing warranty of its truck and bus tyres to run for their total lifecycle: First life as a premium Yokohama tyre; Second life as a valuable Bandag retreaded Yokohama tyre.”
(Akron/Tire Review) Mitsubishi Motors has selected Yokohama as the OE tyre for its 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander compact SUV. Yokohama will supply tyres to Mitsubishi in size P215/70R16 99H. With the addition of the Outlander fitment, Yokohama said it is now OE on a wide range of 2007 vehicles, including the Bentley Continental GT and Continental Flying Spur, Audi S8, the Lotus Elise and Exige, Porsche 911 Carrera 4, Lexus GS300 and GS430, Mazda MX-5, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Toyota RAV4, Suzuki SX4 and Subaru Legacy and Forester.
(Akron/Tire Review) Fort Smith, Arkansas-based Trans-American Tire announced that its North Little Rock, Arkansas, Bandag retread plant has earned ISO 9001:2000 certification. “We’re joining a North American network of Bandag dealers to offer consistent, quality results to trucking fleets’” says R. Scott Hembree, Trans-American’s chairman. “Implementing the Bandag quality management system and working towards certification has helped my organization to fine tune our operations.
(Akron/Tire Review) Tuesday’s military coup in Thailand, has forced a number of companies to suspend operations. According to reports, a number of Japan-based companies were impacted, including electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which halted the operations at its 21 Thai plants on Wednesday to ensure the safety of employees. Sony Corp., Sanyo Electric, Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and Sharp Corp. also suspended operations Bangkok.
Michelin has come top in JD Power’s latest OE tyre satisfaction survey in the SUV-sized vehicle-based tyre segments, with Pirelli winning in the mass-market segment. The “2006 Original Equipment Tire Satisfaction Study” was based on five performance factors: appearance, handling, ride, traction and wearability. The study found that tyre wearability continues to be the most important factor in overall OE tyre satisfaction. “In general, tyre manufacturers will see the largest return on investment if they are able to improve in the wearability factor,” said Carolyn McBeth, director of automotive component research for JD Power and Associates.
Click more for the full results.
(Akron/Tire Review) Yokohama Tire Corp. has “initiated legal proceedings against several tyre companies,” including Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., Ltd. (China), Tireco Inc. (USA), Cooper Tire & Rubber (USA), Guizhou Tire Co. Ltd. (China) and Greenball Corp. (USA). claiming infringement of Yokohama tyre patents. Yokohama said it filed suit in Los Angeles federal court on 1 September for patent infringement against Hangzhou and Tireco for unauthorized use of the patented Geolandar A/T+II tread design. At the same time, Yokohama has demanded that Cooper cease infringing the patent protecting the tread design of Yokohama’s AVS dB S2 tyre.
Yokohama ADVAN-equipped and supported Japanese driver Fumio Nutahara took his second rally win of the season in the FIA Production car World Rally Championship on Rally Japan in early September. This brings his total to two wins from three events so far and he is now second in the championship with three more scoring opportunities.
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., broke ground for the construction of its new Suzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd., factory on 11 August. The new “affiliate” facility will produce and sell steel radial tyres for truck and buses in China.
Following Tyres & Accessories’ pioneering publication of online tyre brand penetration rankings last year, T&A has again enlisted the assistance of Cambridge-based e-marketing specialists Envisional. The report exclusively published in this month’s magazine shows some marked changes in the relatively short time since the 2005 survey.
While Michelin remained top of the virtual pile in terms of quantity, Pirelli beat the French tyre giant in terms of the quality of references to the brand. Goodyear and Dunlop showed that the two brands’ marketing investments have paid off. They remained relatively flat in terms of prominence, but made sharp improvements in terms of sentiment. In this respect (see magazine for sentiment chart) Dunlop jumped from fifth to second place overall, while Goodyear rose from sixth to fourth. Continental took the largest hit of the premium manufacturers, falling from third to sixth on the sentiment index. Interestingly, Uniroyal achieved the lowest number of negative references overall.
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