WhatTyre Tyre of the Year awards

Hankook Tire & Technology is showcasing its portfolio of EV tyres at the Everything Electric Show South (EES South) show in Hampshire. Hosted by Fully Charged, the EV-focused channel founded by Robert Llewellyn, EES South will take place from 11 to 13 October at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre.

Welcome to the fourth edition of the WhatTyre Tyre of the Year Awards and Buyers Guide. Within these pages, our editorial team, which has more than 50 years’ collective experience in writing about tyres and the tyre industry, has selected 78 outstanding tyres across nine categories that represent the best products available for your car. While this sounds like a lot, bear in mind the vast array of brands and products available in the UK’s replacement tyre sector: since WhatTyre began, more than 700 tyre brands have been available in tyre retail outlets around the country. In 2024, 17 brands have been recognised for the quality of their products, including the world’s most recognisable tyre marques and several sub-premium brands with which general motorists may not already be familiar.

With another season of cold weather tyre testing and further development of WhatTyre’s proprietary Tyrescore, there are some changes at the top of WhatTyre’s annual recommendations for the top winter tyres in 2024. Winter tyres remain a very small part of the UK tyre market. All-season tyres, the best of which can happily be fitted all year to guarantee four-season mobility, continue to make full winter tyres a more niche purchase for most UK motorists. However, if you want to guarantee traction in the most extreme cold weather – perhaps those taking trips to the mountainous regions of the UK or the continent – they remain the best tool for the job. WhatTyre’s Winter Tyre of the Year 2024 shortlist offers 12 fantastic options for an optimal cold weather driving experience.

Acknowledging the close relationship between electric car tyres and sustainable motoring, we have overhauled our Eco Tyre of the Year category for 2024. Having expanded the scope of what might constitute a great tyre for an EV, reflecting market trends for original equipment fitments, many particularly efficient tyres are now available as ”EV-Ready” products – tyres that can be fitted to any car. By configuring products to optimise range in EVs, these products are naturally fuel-efficient too, since the concepts of low rolling resistance, lighter weight and more aerodynamic sidewalls achieve the same ultimate goal. With this in mind, we have included another metric in judging what tyres might offer the best economical deal for motorists, while also demonstrating sustainable characteristics.

The electric car market has been extremely dynamic for years now, with new, specialist manufacturers rubbing shoulders with EV editions of familiar shapes from the world’s biggest auto brands. With the needs of fully electric cars different in a few ways to internal combustion engine (ICE) powered cars, tyre manufacturers have been working out their product strategies for the segment, many in conjunction with the car makers, who need the product to be suitable enough for their new models to roll off production lines and into customers’ hands.

More and more of us are driving vehicles that at least look like they could tackle trails and off-road conditions. Of course, many cross-over utility vehicles – or CUVs – as they are known are not “true” Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) let alone mud-plugging 4x4s. However, that trend towards larger cars with higher seating positions has made a massive impact on the market and – in turn – the tyres people are buying are changing too.

For the last couple of years, the latest third-party research has shown that the SUV tyre space has increasingly become an all-season domain (see “The increasingly all-season SUV tyre market: Budget share grows in premium-dominated segment” – Tyres & Accessories magazine, March 2024 or online at tyrepress.com). And that’s why we have again trawled our database of over 300,000 tyres for the best products that qualify both as all-season and SUV tyres.

A relatively rarity a few years ago, the latest generations of all-season products have changed the face of markets across Europe. That might sound like an overstatement, but the latest market research shows that both the value and the volume of all-season tyre sales increased last year. At the same time, while the best-known names out there may have pioneered the breakthrough design of year-round tyres, many more tyremakers are attempting to follow suit. The question is: who is making the best all-season tyres currently on the market?

The pinnacle of the performance tyre spectrum belongs to the Supersports or ultra-ultra-high performance (UUHP) tyre. While fully road legal, these tyres are meticulously engineered to deliver unparalleled performance on the track. Yet their primary mission is to offer a dynamic and safe driving experience for the world's most powerful cars, excelling in both wet and dry conditions. WhatTyre has spotlighted six Supersports tyres that epitomise excellence in this demanding category.