Slush planing specialist Nokian’s winter tyres
meet toughest demands

Optimised for Central European winters and high safety

With more than 75 years of experience, Nokian Tyres from Finland is, by its own account, the worldwide leading winter tyre specialist for northern conditions. Nokian tyres meet the toughest demands because of the hard winters of the North as well as tests in extreme conditions, and, for decades, they have won again and again in the tests,” explains Teppo Huovila, Vice President R & D of Nokian Tyres. “In this way we construct the best winter tyres in the world for northern conditions, therefore they offer additional safety reserves in milder climate.

We have developed special tyre models like the green Nokian WR G2 for Central European winters with rapidly changing weather and warmer temperatures as well as higher speeds than in Scandinavia. These tyre models provide especially high safety on slush, snow, ice, in the wet and in the dry,” Huovila describes the strengths of Nokian products available in Central Europe. “The tyre models optimised for the needs of the Central European car drivers offer better performances in the local, milder weather than the types developed for the colder, Nordic climate and furthermore they are reassuringly safer. In addition they consume only little fuel and are environmentally friendly.”

Slush planing is most dangerous

Slush means danger and is a frequent situation. Slush planing is imminent because the tyre loses contact with the road and you can not steer the car anymore. On slush the risk of fatal accidents is 4.9 times higher than on dry roads, a study of Tampere University of Technology of 2008 proves.

Especially last winter with heavy snowfall in Europe demonstrated that snow covered roads and rapidly changing conditions become more usual and cause many accidents. These were toughest demands for the tyres, which not all met. The consequence: an enormous traffic chaos, mile long jams on the motorways, complete closures, severe accidents with numerous casualties.

Then temperatures rose again above zero degrees Celsius and dangerous slush augmented the risk even more. Cars started skidding because of slush planing and slid off the road or could not brake in time – thousands of accidents happened. The changeover from snow to slush recurred.

Unique slush planing tests improve the tyres more and more

“As the pioneer of slush tests Nokian Tyres has carried out slush planing tests for 15 years and owns as the one tyre manufacturer a unique proving ground for slush planing tests longitudinal as well as lateral,” knows Matti Morri, Technical Customer Service Manager. “Our engineers have developed exact test methods for slush planing testing. Although we are already the forerunner of the branch we can improve our tyres more and more every year.”

The green premium winter tyre Nokian WR G2 is optimized for especially strong slush planing protection, the experts from Finland communicate. Furthermore the slush specialist significantly saves fuel, too due to its lower rolling resistance, namely half a litre of fuel per 100 kilometres, the Nordic engineers argue. As an additional ecological benefit all compounds of Nokian WR G2 are produced without high-aromatic oils but with the natural product canola oil and silica.

The environmentally friendly Nokian WR G2 is “recommendable” according to the test judgements of the German automobile association ADAC and the German car magazines “auto motor und sport”, “Auto” and “sport auto”. Its range is the largest winter tyre programme on the market with 67 sizes from 14 inches of the speed index T to 20 inches W-tyres with 270 km/h maximum speed. Nearly every car model can be equipped with it. Six run-flat versions are available, too.

For SUVs there is a special version: the Nokian WR G2 SUV, also green slush specialist. This environmentally friendly winter tyre drives safely in all weather, on wet, dry, slushy, icy road, the Finns characterise its strengths. It has a ten per cent lower rolling resistance in comparison to most premium competitors, measurements of the manufacturer show. 28 dimensions from 15 to 22 inches are available.

The pioneer of environmental friendliness

“Nokian Tyres is also the pioneer of environmentally friendliness,” says president and CEO Kim Gran. We were the world's first tyre manufacturer to have introduced only purified, low-aromatic oils in our production. Finnish premium tyres with a green heart, which significantly reduce the fuel consumption, because they offer extremely low rolling resistance.”

Nokian Tyres s.r.o
Phone +420 222 507 761
Fax +420 241 940 635
dieter.koppner(at)nokiantyres.com
V Parku 2336/22
148 00 Praha 4
Czech Republic
www.nokiantyres.com

Photo download:
www.nokiantyres.com/NokianWRG2
www.nokiantyres.com/NokianWRG2SUV

Video download:
www.nokiantyres.com/NokianWRG2
www.nokiantyres.com/NokianWRG2SUV

Sources:

Winter 2009/2010:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_2009%E2%80%932010_in_Europe

ADAC winter tyre test 2009: ADACmotorwelt, issue 10, Oktober 2009
auto motor und sport, issue 21, 24 September 2009
Auto, No 24, 10.28.2009
sport auto, No 11, 11.1.2009

Press contact:
Dr. Falk Köhler PR
Dr. Falk Köhler
Phone: +49 40 54 73 12 12
Fax: +49 40 54 73 12 22
E-mail: Dr.Falk.Koehler(at)Dr-Falk-Koehler.de
Ödenweg 59
22397 Hamburg
Germany

Further information:

Nokian Tyres s.r.o
Business Director Central Europe
Dieter Köppner, Phone: +420 222 507 761
Product Development Manager Sven Dittmann Dipl.-Ing.,
Phone: +49 8143 / 444 850

Nokian Tyres plc
Vice President R & D
Teppo Huovila, Phone: +358 10 401 7701

Business Manager
Petri Niemi, Phone: +358 10 401 7646

E-mail: [email protected]