Apollo Vredestein has launched a consumer-focused campaign in the UK to promote the use of all-season tyres: Until 30 September 2019, all purchases of four Vredestein Quatrac all-season tyres at participating dealers qualify for a free Google Home Mini or Amazon Echo Dot.
We heard in June that Goodyear was supplying original equipment tyres to the new Volkswagen Touareg, and Apollo Vredestein now shares that it will supply two 18-inch fitments to the latest version of VW’s flagship SUV. Buyers selecting an all-season fitment as standard can select the Vredestein Quatrac 5 in size 255/60 R18 108V, while those preferring summer rubber can plump for the Vredestein Ultrac Satin in size 255/60 R18 108W.
Auto Express has named the Nokian Weatherproof as its number one all-season car tyre in its survey of the segment. Testing a modest six tyres at Nokian’s test centre in Ivalo, Finland for winter conditions and at Contidrom, Germany for summer conditions, the test was a first for the magazine, highlighting the growth trend Tyrepress.com has noted in the UK market for such products. The Nokian Weatherproof was declared the test winner, and an Auto Express ‘Best Buy’, perhaps unsurprisingly sweeping away the competition in the winter tests (the winter rubber specialist uses Test World to test its tyres). The test’s most notable omission is Michelin’s self-professed “game-changer”, the 2015 launched CrossClimate. The French manufacturer has responded hawkishly to references to the new product as an all-season tyre despite its year-round applicability, though tyre test coordinator Kim Adams noted that its March 2015 launch was “just too late” for the tyre to be included.
The all-season tyre segment is growing in the UK and Europe, and Apollo Vredestein is catering to this trend through the addition of a Y speed rated fitment and a SUV version to its Vredestein Quatrac 5 range. The Quatrac 5 line-up now includes five dimensions for 13 to 19-inch rim diameters, with speed ratings T to Y covered.
On 23 June Apollo Vredestein introduced a new generation of all-season tyres – the Vredestein Quatrac 5. In parallel the company also launched the new Snowtrac 5 winter tyre. However, as much as the launch was about these products and the technology associated with them, there was also a heavy emphasis on further communicating the upwardly mobile so-called “brand emotion” the company has work hard to associated with its name during the last two decades. The launch could also be read as suggesting a broadening in the company’s pioneering approach to the development of the winter tyre market in the UK to include a greater role for all-season tyres.
