When you have to choose winter tyres, you basically have a few options depending on where you live. In Germany and Poland, the studded tyres are banned, so you are left with non-studded tyres and winter approved all-season tyres. In other countries in Central Europe, the studded tyres are allowed, so you have 3 tyre options. In the Nordics, the all-season tyres are not sold, as the weather conditions make the use or dedicated winter tyres so important that they are preferred. In Southern Europe you might not need any winter tyres at all and can use your summer tyres all year round without any problems as you will not face any winter weather.
The rule is always that if you will drive in winter conditions you will need to have tyres that are approved for winter use. Don’t try to drive with summer tyres in winter conditions, as they aren’t safe as they can’t provide enough friction on snow and ice. At low temperatures the summer tyres become hard, which reduces its friction, and the tread pattern isn’t optimized for snow and ice. This makes them very dangerous to drive with during the winter as even at low temperatures on dry roads, they are worse than winter tyres.
When selecting tyres, the EU tyre label tends to add a lot of valuable information, unfortunately it isn’t really made for tyres to be used during winter conditions, where you want to see the grip on ice and not wet grip. For summer tyres this can add valuable information as you definitely want good grip on wet roads, so that you will have a short braking distance. In addition, you want to make sure that you purchase tyres with low rolling resistance, as that will ensure that you have lower tyre wear and the tyres will last longer. It also ensures that you will have a lower fuel consumption. Both these will save you money in the long run and when you select tyres that aren’t of premium quality the rolling resistance will be high and any savings made during the purchase phase are lost during the lifetime of the tyres and you are stuck with tyres that are less safe.
When it comes to selecting the best non-studded tyres, you can check tyre tests in motor magazines or the evening press or find some online. It is important to make sure that they are unbiased so that you can see an objective view of how they will perform. For winter tyres you always want to make sure that they will perform well on snow, ice and slush. They need to have great grip on these surfaces. Since they don’t have metal studs to help create grip, they will need to depend on the tread pattern, the sipes in the tread and the rubber compound and its additives. It is the combination of these that will determine how good they are. Premium tyres will have been better tyre technology and long history of development and testing to reach the excellent results.
For more information regarding premium non-studded tyres, visit: https://www.nokiantyres.com/