In 30-odd years of reporting on the global tire industry, I’ve come across countless estimates of the number of vehicles on the road with one or more defective tires. The one thing these surveys agree on is that it is a lot. People do not care about tires People in many countries and all kinds
Let me first say that I don’t like discussing politics in public. I think that in general, business tries to do its best, irrespective of the interference of politicians, many of whom are only in post for a few years and cannot take a long term view. And even more of whom have little idea
You have probably read about Goodyear’s two main concept tires shown at the Geneva motor show (See images above). They generated a massive amount of publicity in the automotive and general press and on websites around the world. I think this demonstrates – despite widespread opposition to the idea – that many people in the
Apollo Tyres and its Vredestein unit are developing a new brand strategy and making structural changes to their European operations. Speaking exclusively to Tire Industry Research at the Geneva Motor show, Apollo CEO, Neeraj Kanwar said the company is changing its brand strategy. The change is driven partly by a drive to build OE contracts
Last week, Nokian implicitly admitted that it rigged magazine tests of tires. In this column I want to look at how and why it might have done that and then look at some of the implications of the admission. Nokian admits rigging tests First, the facts as we know them. Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti last week
Bridgestone’s European Driveguard was launched today in France. It was marketed as a ‘Game Changer’ within the tire business. At first glance, the product is just another runflat tire, launched 2 years behind its US namesake. But there is a story behind the development, which marks a change of game not necessarily for the tire
China’s tire industry is in melt-down. The question now is, how long can the current situation last? I’ve just come back from Shandong Province and the mood is not good. When things are not going well, Chinese people will rarely tell you the real situation. When they tell you things are bad, you know the
Disruption. Change. Revolution. Usually when we talk about the tire industry, we talk about incremental change. Tires are safety critical and big changes introduce too much risk. Vehicle makers, tire retailers and the vehicle operators like tires to be reliable, safe and secure. Tire manufacture is both capital-intensive and labour-intensive. This means tire makers need
The following letter was written by Jan Prins, who is in charge of Tyre CAE & Modelling at Jaguar Land Rover. He has agreed to let me share it with you. Would you be interested in joining a fairly informal (private / co-opted) ‘network’ for discussions on tyre testing and tyre modelling? Those of you
Last week I spent a lot of time with the VDI at their meeting in Hanover. For those who don’t know, the VDI – The German Association of Engineers – is a highly prestigious organisation which links many industries. For our industry, it was one of the few forums in 2015 where tire engineers employed
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