Have the EU’s tyre labelling requirements failed in not taking tyre wear into account properly? John Kendall finds out by assessing the effects of wear on wet grip.
IT’S NOW 10 years since the EU introduced mandatory tyre labelling to provide information on fuel efficiency, wet grip and external rolling noise.
Where fuel efficiency and wet grip are concerned, the tyre labelling regulation ranks tyres from A to G with A the best and G the worst. External noise is shown as a measured value and a three-step scale. To quote the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA): “The objective of this regulation is to increase the safety and the environmental and economic efficiency of road transport by promoting fuel efficient and safe tyres with low noise levels.”
Critics have pointed out that while it is useful to have this information to inform buyers, it would also be useful to know how these factors change as the tyre wears.
