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Hankook Tire, new official technical partner and tyre supplier of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and title sponsor of the current season’s opening race, says it is “prepared and ready” for its engagement in the all-electric race series. The Hankook Mexico City E-Prix takes place on 14 January and is the first of eleven race weekends around the world this year that will host a total of 16 races.
According to the recent Hankook Tire Gauge Index, a survey of Americans’ driving habits, 46 per cent of Americans plan to purchase or lease an electric vehicle (EV) within the next five years. Therefore, the arrival of Hankook’s EV-specific iON brand across the pond is timely. Catering to local preferences, the Hankook iON range for the USA has a strong all-season flavour, and the tyre maker has introduced two lines – the iON evo AS and iON evo AS SUV.
Hankook will commence its role as the new official technical partner and tyre supplier of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in 2023. The manufacturer, which is taking over from the original tyre supplier to the championship, Michelin, will further underline its commitment to the series with title sponsorship of three rounds in 2023, including the season finale in London. Hankook has invested heavily in the marketing of its new line of tyres for electric vehicles in 2022, the iON series. The manufacturer will supply the iON Race to Formula E, having tested the tyre in Valencia in December.
Earlier this year Hankook introduced its iON range of electric vehicle (EV) tyres to the world. Here, the global tyre maker gives us a unique insight into the company’s ground-breaking range.
Hankook Tire correctly observes that a cross-industry collaboration between a tyre company and fashion brand “piques curiosity” as these businesses “seem to have less or no connection at all.” But a lack of relatedness hasn’t stopped such an unlikely pairing from becoming reality: Hankook is launching apparel in collaboration with South Korean fashion company Handsome.
The iON name is one we’ve recently become acquainted with on Hankook car tyres. With the launch of the iON Evo and iON winter, Hankook Tire has a range of summer and winter tyres specifically aimed at electric vehicles. The South Korean tyre maker is now launching a series of iON truck and bus tyres in its domestic market, and this is worth noting as Hankook says some of these products are being developed with European markets in mind.
At the end of September Hankook announced that, as of next season, it will be the exclusive technology partner and tyre supplier of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. The announcement was made at an event in The Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Austria on 27 September, where Tyres & Accessories was present to witness Hankook being officially presented with the newly developed Hankook iON race tyres.
Hankook’s comprehensive range of winter and all-season car and van tyres have been scooping up plenty of awards and recommendations over the past few years. This has been reflected in commendations for both the Kinergy 4S and 4S2 all-season models by Tyres & Accessories’ sister independent tyre comparison website WhatTyre, which considers tyres’ performance in a range of quality tyre tests, original equipment fitments, and several other metrics. In addition to the Kinergy 4S2, the manufacturer’s core all-season range includes the Vantra ST AS 2 for vans, and the Kinergy 4S2 X for SUVs, while its winter collection, including the Winter i*cept evo 3, Winter i*cept evo 3 X, Winter i*cept LV, and Winter i*cept RS 2 has also received its share of plaudits.
During the second quarter of 2022, Hankook Tire grew its sales by 12.9 per cent year-on-year to KRW 2,039.9 billion (£1.3 billion). Operating profit, squeezed by world events, rising raw material costs and inflation, shrank 6.3 per cent year-on-year to KRW 175.2 billion (£109.9 million). This result nonetheless represented a 39.0 per cent increase compared with the operating profit of KRW 126.0 billion (£79.0 million) achieved in Q1 2022. Hankook attributes this quarter-on-quarter improvement to a growing share of sales attributable to high-value-added products as well as effective pricing strategies.
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has opened the order books for prospective ID. Buzz owners in the UK, and this sheds further light on the tyres the all-electric campervan will wear. UK customers can choose from three trim levels: Life, Style and 1st Edition. Continental and Hankook are supplying original equipment tyres for these UK market models.
During the recent Tire Cologne event, Tyres & Accessories met with Hankook Europe’s top management including president and chief operating officer Sanghoon Lee; Dietmar Olbrich, vice president of marketing and sales at Hankook Germany; Byung Ryong Lee, vice president of marketing strategy in Europe; Guy Heywood, vice president sales, marketing and business strategy for truck and bus tyres in Europe; vice president of European Technical Centre, Klaus Krause; Massimo Cialone, chief specialist for compounding and materials.
Hankook Tire has expanded the portfolio of original equipment products it supplies to electric vehicles with tyres for two new Audi models, the Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron. These compact SUVs will leave the factory on Hankook Ventus S1 evo 3 ev tyres. Depending on model and equipment level, Audi will fit the Hankook tyre in 19- to 21-inch dimensions.
Hankook Tyre UK was the headline sponsor of the Auto Express New Car Awards 2022, presented in London on 5 July. Car manufacturers competed across 27 categories to be nominated as best in class, while the electric Nissan Ariya was made the overall winner. Hankook has launched a new brand for electric car tyres, iON, with a Ventus iON summer tyre and a Winter i*cept iON winter tyre already announced. The tyre maker was also presented with three Auto Express Product of the Year Awards in May, winning the summer (Ventus S1 evo 3) and all-season (Kinergy 4S 2) categories.
Hankook has launched the Ventus iON S, the first summer tyre in a new product range that has been specifically designed for electric vehicles. By taking this approach, the company wants to make a decisive contribution from a tyre choice perspective to advancing the mobility transition towards zero-emission vehicles. The new summer tyre is a pioneer of the new, global “iON” tyre family designed for premium electric vehicles, which will include the Hankook Winter i*cept iON in September 2022.
On 25 May, Hankook opened the Hankook Technoring, its new proving ground in Taean, South Korea. The new facility is the largest in Asia with an area of 1.26 million square metres and will serve as a state-of-the-art research and development facility for Hankook’s pioneering products.
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