Germany poised to tighten regulations for winter tires
Germany: In
November 2010, Germany’s parliament passed a new law specific to winter tires.
As per the law, vehicle drivers should ensure that they fit winter tires to
their vehicles in winter season in order to prevent any accident. The
prevailing winter tire regulation includes passenger car, commercial vehicle
and two-wheeler segments in the country. A winter tire is embarked with “M+S”
symbol, which indicates that the tire is capable of running smoothly in the
winter season.
However, as per the “German association of
publicly appointed and sworn experts”, the regulations for use of winter tires
are planned to be changed. The new regulations, which are anticipated to be
implemented from 2018, requires winter tire to be embarked with “Three-Peak-Mountain-Snowflake”
(3PMSF) symbol in addition to the M+S symbol.
The new regulation will be applicable to all
the tires manufactured from January 2018 onwards. However, an exemption would
be offered to the tires manufactured prior to January 2018, for a transitional
phase which is likely to last till September 30th, 2024.
According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “Germany Tyre Market Forecast
and Opportunities, 2020” the tire market in Germany is forecast to grow at a
CAGR of around 7% during 2015-20. Changing purchasing patterns, expanding
consumer base, increasing urbanization, high R&D investments and
introduction of electric and hybrid vehicles are the major factors propelling
growth in the country’s automobile as well as tire market. The passenger car
tire market is the most dominant tire segment, followed by commercial vehicle
tire, two wheeler tire and OTR tire segments. Further, Yokohama, Goodyear
Dunlop and Nokian tire are few of the prominent players offering winter tire in
Germany and therefore would be affected by the implementation of this
regulation.