A wide range of Hankook Atlas BX brand battery products will be on display at Automechanika Frankfurt from 13 to 17 September. Hankook & Company Energy Solution (ES) Business Headquarters will present its latest technologies for start-stop vehicles, passenger cars and commercial vehicles, as well as for boats and motorhomes, at stand E51 in Hall 4.1.
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.
With the promise of shorter braking distances on snow-covered surfaces and improved handling on icy and wet roads, Hankook Tire has introduced the Hankook Winter i*cept RS3. It says this “enhanced successor to the multiple award-winning Winter i*cept RS2” uses the latest technologies to surpass its predecessor and “offer even greater levels of safety in everyday life.”
Michelin is parting ways with the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship following the 2021/22 season finale. With Hankook limbering up and ready to take over next year, the French tyre maker has looked back on its eight years with the championship, convinced that its work has “made a concrete contribution to the success enjoyed by Formula E today.”
Bridgestone’s newest ultra-high performance tyre, the Potenza Sport offered the best results in wet and dry performance in the latest Auto Express tyre test. The tyre was able to make the most of its home field advantage as the magazine used Bridgestone’s Aprilla proving ground, just besting Goodyear’s Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 by 0.5 per cent. Another notable result was the third-place finish of the Maxxis Victra Sport 5, which adds to a growing list of test successes proving that the brand is increasingly able to hold its own against the traditional premium brands. The test was conducted on the biggest selling 18” tyre size, 225/40R18 92Y. This UHP tyre test of seven products was split from the “UUHP mini test” of three of the highest-performing road tyre products, won by the new Continental SportContact 7. For the UHP test, Auto Express weighted its results to reflect UK driving needs: wet tests counted for 50 per cent of the final mark, dry 40 per cent, and the remaining 10 per cent on noise, fuel economy and price.
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.
The family ownership of Hankook Tire and Technology must pay a fine of KRW 4.59 billion (£2.9 million) after losing a lawsuit related to foreign assets. Seoul-based publication The Korea Herald writes that the Seoul Administrative Court recently ruled against the lawsuit brought by Cho Yang-rae, honorary chairman of Hankook & Co., and his eldest son Cho Hyun-sik.
At 22:20 on April 7, a mechanical injury occurred within the Banbury workshop on the west side of Hankook’s Jiangsu, China plant, causing the death of the operator of a Banbury machine. Recently, the government department where the factory is located released an investigation report on the incident.
Whether you drive a single van, or manage a whole fleet, having the correct tyres is essential for ensuring safety and performance. Tyre manufacturer Hankook acknowledges that the tyres fitted to UK vans need to be able to cope with the additional weight and withstand the strain of stop-start urban trips as well as longer journeys. Its portfolio for the van and light truck category includes the Vantra LT, an energy efficient, safe and exceptionally durable summer tyre and the Vantra ST AS 2, the most recent addition to the range, a durable, multi-performance, all-season tyre.
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.
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.
First presented at the SEMA show in Las Vegas back in 2014 and subsequently launched in Europe and dozens of other markets, Laufenn is Hankook Tire’s second brand. After introducing Laufenn to the world, Hankook is now bringing the brand home and offering it in South Korea for the first time. By debuting Laufenn locally, the tyre maker aims to “further accelerate” its domestic market penetration with a multi-brand strategy that satisfies “the diverse tastes of consumers.”
For the past ten years, Hankook Tire has incorporated tailored analysis and simulation software into its tyre development programme. This software is set to gain a performance boost through a new partnership with high performance computing (HPC) cloud simulation platform Rescale.
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.
After a short tenure as president of Hankook Tire North America, Curtis Brison has taken on the role of vice president of sales, marketing and strategic growth at TireHub, the US-based national tyre distributor jointly founded by Bridgestone Americas and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. The vacancy he leaves within Hankook’s regional operation is being filled on an interim basis by Sooil Lee, chief executive officer of Hankook Tire & Technology.
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