Offer summer/winter tire choice, ATS tells OEMs

ERJ staff report (BC)

Birmingham, England - ATS Euromaster is urging 38 of the largest van and car manufacturers in the UK to offer customers a choice of summer or winter tires when ordering factory-built vehicles.

Modern rubber compounds and advances in tread pattern design mean that current cold weather tyres deliver considerably shorter stopping distances, says Columba Zaal, group operations director at ATS Euromaster, who adds that using summer tires in the winter can reduce their life by up to 20 percent.

Zaal concludes: "If active safety systems such as adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning can increasingly be offered as factory-fit options, why can't cold weather tyres?"