Known for its style, speed and performance marketing values, Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational company based in Milan, Italy, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, with a temporary privatization period by the consortium led by the Chinese state-owned enterprise ChemChina.
Safer, more comfortable, better performance. These three qualities are what Pirelli says motorists can now expect from its Scorpion range of SUV tyres following the range’s recent revamp, which the tyre maker undertook in response to forecasted global growth in SUV sales over the next few years.
At a meeting on 22 June, the Board of Directors of Pirelli approved the underwriting of a sustainability-linked credit line for an amount up to 400 million euros. This credit line with a “select pool of international banks” has a 19-month maturity and “enables the further optimisation of the group’s financial structure.”
For the past two years, Pirelli has supplied vehicle manufacturers with original equipment tyres tailored for electric and plug-in hybrid cars. The tyre maker is now offering Pirelli Elect products as replacement fitments and states that these are “now widely available” for aftermarket customers. Pirelli has integrated Elect into all P Zero, Cinturato and Scorpion lines, thereby offering the technology for summer, winter and all-season ranges.
Michelin remains the world’s leading tyre company by sales turnover, but Bridgestone is close behind in one of three close battles distributed across the table. For the first time, our research ranking market-leading global tyre manufacturers in terms of sales turnover converted into euros, illustrates the impact of recent high-profile acquisitions as well as the ongoing disruption of pandemic on the wider market landscape.
Pirelli has doubled the total number of tyre approvals on electric and plug-in hybrid cars in 2021. According to the company, car manufacturers are increasingly choosing this technology and have allowed Pirelli to expand the homologation portfolio to more than 250 total homologations on ‘green’ cars since the launch of the ‘Elect’ EV-specific marking in 2019. For example, the Audi A6 Avant e-tron concept, exhibited in the Pirelli stand at the “Tire Cologne”.
Kirkby Tyres’ stand in Lamma 2022’s Hall 9 focused on the comprehensive technical tyre support the large tyre specialist can offer to farmers and the Alliance Agri Star II. Kirkby Tyres is the exclusive partner of Yokohama Off-Highway Tires’ (YOHT) Alliance brand in the UK and Ireland, and it describes the tractor tyre as a great success. The company also displayed new sizes of the versatile Alliance 590 tyre for a broad range of transport applications, and the Alliance 372 VF and Alliance 389 VF tractor trailer tyres. On the latter tyres, Kirkby showed evidence presented by Danish SEGES Innovation which evidences the effective soil protection, and therefore yield increases, the tyre combination can achieve during the application of liquid manure.
Pirelli is displaying its most cutting-edge products that contribute to more sustainable mobility at its stand at The Tire Cologne 2022 (Hall 6.1, Stand A020-B029). “With its appearance at Tire Cologne 2022, Pirelli is underlining its leading position as a high-performance development partner of leading automobile manufacturers for the original equipment of tyres for their models from the premium and prestige segments,” says Wolfgang Meier, chairman of the management board of Pirelli Deutschland GmbH. “In addition, we present ourselves as an attractive and reliable partner of the tyre trade and as a company that is aware of its responsibility for the environment and climate.”
Pirelli’s new 18” Formula 1 tyres faced “one of the biggest tests” of their inaugural season in Spain as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen used a three-stop strategy to win and gain the championship lead. He alternated between the P Zero Red soft tyre, with which he started the race, and the P Zero Yellow medium, on which he finished it, handling a high-energy circuit and high temperatures with relatively high degradation. His team mate Sergio Perez and Mercedes driver George Russell, who also finished on the podium, both used a different three-stop strategy: soft-medium-medium-soft.
Exclusive Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli will supply the teams with its softest compound P Zero tyres for the first time since the Australian grand prix when the series visits the streets of Monaco. The C5 compound, alongside the C4 and C3, will be available one weekend after the hardest tyres in its range were selected for the Spanish Grand Prix. The compounds will be designated as P Zero White hard (C3), P Zero Yellow medium (C4), and P Zero Red soft (C5).
Giorgio Luca Bruno will succeed Marco Tronchetti Provera as chief executive officer of Pirelli. In a statement published on Monday, Pirelli investor Camfin S.p.A announced that Bruno will take responsibility for the operational implementation of the group’s strategies, freeing Tronchetti Provera to guide group strategy and oversee the implementation of the Pirelli business plan as executive vice-chairman, a role he is confirmed to hold until spring 2026. Camfin views the transition as one that ensures the “continuation of the managerial culture of Pirelli.”
Product testing at the Pirelli Sottozero Centre in Lapland, Sweden is now taking place in summer as well as winter. Pirelli says it switched the facility to year-round testing in response to increased demand for product development on both wet and dry roads, particularly for all-season and winter tyres. The team at the Sottozero Centre recently wrapped up its winter test programme for the season and is now beginning the summer programme.
Pirelli’s latest Scorpion gravel tyre will make its debut on the milestone Rally de Portugal. The first gravel event of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship season is also the 50th edition of the event, with the new hybrid Rally1 cars running on Pirelli’s updated range of Scorpion KX WRC gravel tyres. Pirelli will bring around 2400 tyres to Portugal, of which 520 will be for the top class of Rally1 cars. Rally1 drivers may use up to 28 tyres during the rally and shakedown.
Pirelli will focus on the softest tyres in its range for the third WorldSBK round of the season, the first of two 2022 meets in Portugal. The supplier will offer riders the standard soft SC1 and the development SC1 A0674 on the front. Rear specifications will be the supersoft SCX and soft SC0 tyre, in addition to the SCQ option that can be used in the Superpole session and Superpole Race.
Pirelli & C. Spa has reported a strong set of first quarter 2022 results which show revenues and pre-tax profits (adjusted EBIT) were up 22.2 per cent and 35.4 per cent respectively despite considerable turmoil related to the war in Ukraine and the resultant sanctions against Russia, where Pirelli runs two tyre factories. However, the tyre manufacturer has also revised down full-year estimates due to the same “geopolitical tensions”.
Pirelli has introduced a new hard-compound asphalt rally tyre ahead of the 12-14 May Rally Islas Canarias, round three of the FIA European Rally Championship. The P Zero RA5A is an evolution of the RA5, fitted by many winners in the continental series over the last three years. The new tyre will be available to Pirelli-equipped drivers including Spaniard Nil Solans, who returns to the ERC in a Volkswagen Polo Rally2 after his victory in the opening round in Fafe.
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