winter tyres

Falken's has expanded the sizes available in its latest all-season and winter tyre ranges. The brand has added the Euroall Season AS220 Pro all-season tyre to its range in 45 sizes, and increased the available sizes of its Eurowinter HS02 and HS02 Pro winter tyres, available now in 45 and 74 sizes respectively.

Hankook has achieved several top results in the latest round of independent tyre tests of winter and all-season tyres. Hankook’s Winter i*cept and Kinergy 4S tyre lines gained several podium finishes in tests by such leading independent testers as ADAC, Auto Bild and Auto Express, scoring particularly highly in the dry and wet as well as in snow.

The Goodyear UltraGrip Ice 3 non-studded winter tyre got two wins and two second-place finishes in four Nordic winter tyre tests. The tyre, made for Nordic conditions, won two Finnish tests from magazines Moottori and Tekniikan Maailma, and claimed second place in the tests conducted by Swedish magazines Vi Bilägare and Teknikens Värld. In the latter title, Goodyear’s studded UltraGrip Arctic 2 and non-studded UltraGrip Performance 3 were also crowned Best in Test in the studded and Middle European friction tyre categories.

European motoring clubs ADAC, TCS and ÖAMTC have evaluated 16 winter tyres in size 205/60 R16, a dimension primarily worn by smaller SUVs. The test team fitted the tyres to a VW T-Roc and appraised their performance in dry, wet and wintry conditions as well as for environmental and sustainability-related factors such as noise, wear and rolling resistance.

Continental WinterContact TS 870’s strength in wet and dry conditions was enough to win its second Auto Express Winter Tyre Test in a row. Competing against six other global manufacturers’ products, the Conti tyre narrowly finished ahead of the Bridgestone Blizzak LM-005 – WhatTyre’s Winter Tyre of the Year – by only 0.3 points overall. All seven tyres tested showed a good level of winter performance, with the last-placed Vredestein Wintrac Pro only 3.2 points out of 100 behind the Conti tyre. The performance differences between the top four winter tyres in the test especially were minimal, and the winner was selected as a particularly good tyre for UK winter driving conditions. The tyres were tested in size 225/45R17 in northern Sweden and in Germany.

Season-specific winter tyres may be niche products in the UK but make a lot of sense in certain situations. For example, high-powered performance cars may benefit from the added grip they offer when temperatures drop. Auto Bild Sportscars has evaluated 11 brands of tyre in size 225/40 R18 to gauge performance in snowy, wet and dry conditions. Four tyres gain the motoring publication’s highest recommendation, but Auto Bild Sportscars also warns that some winter products aren’t up to the job.

Auto Bild has shared the results achieved by the 20 finalists in its 2023 winter tyre test. While the motoring publication’s test team found that most of these size 225/45 R18 tyres offered “really good performance” when snow and ice were present, the situation changed somewhat in conditions that motorists more typically encounter. After experiencing “surprisingly large differences in performance potential” on wet and dry roads they awarded only three tyres their top ‘exemplary’ rating. One of the 20 receives a non-recommendation.

The Auto Bild tyre test team has been busy, and in addition to evaluating 35 all-season tyres they’ve put 54 winter tyres through their paces. After a preliminary round of testing – braking from 80km/h in the wet and from 50km/h on snow – 20 tyres continue on as finalists.

Winter tyres are a very small part of the UK tyre market compared to their year-round alternative, all-season tyres. But if you want to guarantee traction in the most extreme cold weather, they remain the best tool for the job. WhatTyre’s Winter Tyre of the Year 2023 shortlist offers the ten best-performing options for an optimal cold weather driving experience. The ten tyres selected represent the best the winter tyre market has to offer, according to both the latest seasons of the best independent European tyre tests and our newest algorithm, Tyrescore 2.2 “Bugatti”.