According to Phillip von Hirschheydt, head of the business area Passenger Car Tyres Replacement Business EMEA, Continental developed the TS 870, the “pioneer of winter tyres”, to find a winter tyre with optimal balance for any type of wintry road conditions. According to company information, the new tyre will surpass its direct predecessor above all in the areas of snow and ice performance, when driving on wet roads and with regard to mileage and rolling resistance.
Especially improvements in the area of ecologically relevant criteria like mileage and rolling resistance stress the claim of the company from Hanover to focus on more than only innovative products in the area of winter tyres. As von Hirschheydt highlighted in his speech, Continental would like to play a leading role in the area of sustainability too. Concerning climate change and stricter regulations in the automotive sector, industrial companies would have to contribute to sustainable production and thus a sustainable future. When opening the Taraxagum Lab in Anklam a step in the right direction was taken.
The new tyre is supposed to cover sizes between 14 and 17 inches for vehicles in the compact and middle class. Thus, the tyre will also fit to the VW up in the smallest size! Moreover, there will be further sizes for the compact models VW Golf and Citroen C4 as well as more sportive cars like the series 1 and 3 from BMW.
The tyre manufacturer explains that although there has been a trend towards bigger and broader models, there is still a rather high demand for winter tyres in 15, 16 and 17 inches. According to experts at Conti, only the three dimensions 185/65 R15 T, 195/65 R15 T and 205/55 R16 H – typically used by passenger cars of the compact and middle class – cover about 25 per cent of all the winter tyres sold in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These tyre sizes are popular among customers in West and Central Europe too. When launching the tyre in autumn 2020, Conti will offer the WinterContact TS 870 in a total of 19 versions, before further 51 variations of the tyre will be introduced in 2021. (dw)
