After bringing no new tyres to market for quite some time, last year Pirelli kicked off a product offensive with the launch of the Cinturato P7 C2 summer line. It followed this up with the Cinturato All Season SF2, and the Cinturato Winter 2 will arrive in time for next winter. And another addition to the Pirelli portfolio is apparently on its way, too.
Vredestein has launched its new Ultrac car tyre today, with a range of sizes between 15 and 18 inches suited to many of Europes biggest selling compact-medium sized cars. The tyre, the third Vredestein has launched during the pandemic, has been developed with full life cycle sustainability a key consideration. Yet the Ultrac’s performance in wet and dry conditions is also head and shoulders above its predecessor – the manufacturer says overall performance is 15 per cent better. In addition to its green credentials, the Apollo Tyres global R&D centre in Enschede, Netherlands focused on safety and comfort. As a result, the company’s flagship European brand calls the tyre’s performance “best-in-class”. Hosted by Formula 3 driver Vicky Piria, the tyre’s launch was streamed online in a virtual presentation suite, with chief technical officer Daniele Lorenzetti supplying insight into the development of the new tyre.
Whichever company is responsible for manufacturing Eurorepar Reliance tyres, the repair chain certainly appears to be moving significant quantities.
Following the announcement that PSA UK has added Reliance tyres to its British Eurorepar offer. The next question is, who makes the Reliance tyre brand? The good news is that colleagues at our German sister publication (Neue Reifenzeitung, which you can read online at reifenpresse.de) looked into this at the end of 2019 and found strong evidence that the tyres are made by Hankook.
Tyre Reviews has made the newly released Goodyear Vector 4Season Gen-3 its 2020 All Season 17” Test winner. Putting nine all-season tyres in size 225/45 R17 through their paces at Goodyear’s testing facilities in Finnish Lapland and the south of France, tester Jonathan Benson gave additional recommendations to four further tyres: Hankook’s Kinergy 4S2 (second place) and the Continental AllSeasonContact (third) were given the review website’s Highly Recommended rating, while the Bridgestone Weather Control A005 (fourth) and Michelin CrossClimate+ (fifth) were Recommended. The weighting of different conditions is particularly relevant to all-season tyre tests, given the promise of functionality in a wide range of climate and road surface conditions. Tyre Reviews opted to award overall scores based on 30 per cent wet, 25 per cent dry, 25 per cent snow, 10 per cent noise and comfort, and 10 per cent rolling resistance. See below for the Tyre Reviews video of the 2020 All Season 17” test, and for additional comments on each of the nine tyres tested.
The world’s top-selling tyre size, 205/55 R16, has been given the Tyre Reviews treatment. The site prodded and poked a dozen specimens to find out which ones deliver safety, comfort, efficiency and value – and which tyres don’t. The results have been distilled into 17 minutes of highly informative video.
Michelin introduced the first CrossClimate tyre in 2015 in a move that saw the manufacturer shift from its long-held position of being broadly opposed to all-season tyres on the basis that best seasonal performance is achieved by either summer or winter tyres. However, arguing that the CrossClimate is a summer tyre with year-round capabilities, Michelin pioneered a new category of tyre. The initial CrossClimate was followed by the CrossClimate + and the CrossClimate SUV variants 2017 and now there is the news that a completely revised version – the CrossClimate 2 – is on its way.
Yokohama Rubber has long been one of the most significant firms within the tyre industry to exhibit at the Geneva International Motor Show. Although this year’s event was cancelled, the tyre maker has proceeded with the virtual launch of no less than five products destined for European markets. The new additions to the Yokohama range are the BluEarth-GT AE51, BluEarth-XT AE61 and Geolandar CV G058, as well as the BluEarth Winter V906 and IceGuard Studless IG53 winter patterns.
Auto Zeitung’s 2020 summer tyre test is one of the largest it has ever published. The German motoring magazine has looked at 20 brands of size 225/50 R17 94/98 W/Y tyres in an evaluation that covers premium to budget. The cheapest of the tyres on test can be had for around 230 euros (£200) a set; the most expensive cost more than twice as much. As you’d expect, the winners’ podium was dominated by premium products priced well above the average. The fourth-placed tyre is a different story.
After eliminating 30 tyres from its 2020 summer tyre test in a preliminary wet and dry braking round, Auto Bild scrutinised the remaining 20 more closely. The findings are now out, and the motoring publication is very happy with more than a third of the tested candidates. First place in test was shared by two tyres.
Nokian Tyres has traditionally focused first and foremost on winter tyres, and these products currently account for around 70 per cent of the company’s passenger vehicle tyre business. But a reputation as a winter specialist means the brand hasn’t gained significant traction in markets where winter tyres find little favour, such as the UK. The tyre maker intends to rectify this.
As in previous years, Auto Bild’s 2020 summer tyre test has begun with a preliminary round in which the distance taken to stop in wet and dry conditions determines which tyres progress to the second, more extensive round of testing, and which don’t. The results of this first round are now available, and there’s one or two surprises to be seen.
As expected, this year’s Auto Bild size 225/45 R17 summer tyre test delivered no nasty surprises. With more than half of the original field of 53 already eliminated in a preliminary round of wet and dry braking tests, the remaining 20 candidates all gave a good account of themselves. Six of their number were even declared ‘exemplary’ tyres.
Nokian has announced that it is introducing its Hakka summer tyre range in Japan. The product line will be available to Japanese consumers beginning in April.
When evaluating the latest crop of tyres for the coming summer season, Germany’s Autozeitung opted to look at ten brands of size 235/45 R18 rubber. We weren’t especially surprised to see the Continental PremiumContact 6, last year’s runner-up, in first place and the Michelin Primacy 4 in second, but it was nice to see the Maxxis Premitra HP5 acquaint itself with the victors’ podium.
Apollo Vredestein
PSA UK
Hankook; PSA; NRZ
Michelin