For over two decades, Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Goodyear, Michelin and Pirelli have been exclusively known as the "big six" - the world's only premium tyre manufacturers.
While this title has at least in part been for historic reasons, there are a number of quantifiable factors which make these manufacturers "premium".
What makes a tyre manufacturer Premium?
Other than history, there are three key factors which have made the big six sit head and shoulders above all the other manufacturers.
Turnover
The big six have always had the biggest turnover in the industry, and until recently, by a significant margin.
Prestige OE Fitment
New cars used to exclusively be fitted with premium tyres from factory, and while recently midrange / second tier brands have been winning OE fitment on more "normal" cars, high performance cars, such as BMW M, Audi RS, Porsche all are still exclusively fitted with premium tyres.
Test Results
Again, until recently, independent tyre testing has been dominated by the big six manufacturers, with the products having a clear advantage over cheaper alternatives.
How does Hankook stack up?
Of all the mid-range / second tier brands making really good progress over the past ten years, Hankook has been leading the way.
It has been winning OE vehicle fitment for a number of years, and is currently supplying 46 brands and 336 vehicle models, including Audi RS and Porsche, which is a huge achievement.
Their test results have also been steadily improving, and since 2016 all their halo tyre patterns have either been test winning, or have placed in the top three positions, ahead of other premium manufacturers. This gives Hankook two of the three "premium" factors.
With test wins as far back as 2016, and an established OE portfolio, turnover has always been a sticking point. All this has now changed, as in 2018 Hankook overtook Pirelli in global tyre sales. This gives Hankook the trio of accolades so few tyre manufacturers have ever realised.
Everyone in the industry has been quietly calling Hankook a premium manufacturer behind closed doors for what seems like an age, and the respect for the brand has never been higher. In a recent survey by David Shaw, CEO at Tire Industry Research of industry professionals, many of them employed by tyre makers, some in tyre wholesale and a few in upstream suppliers, Hankook were firmly voted as the sixth tyre manufacturer in terms of brand portfolio, and market position.
As of now, Tyre Reviews is officially categorising Hankook a premium tyre manufacturer.
I´ve had my first Hankook in 1991, it was an all season tyre and IIRC it looks similar to an old Goodyear Vector.
It was not a good tyre and after 1 year the tread depth was around 2mm. The tyre was extreme noisy at dry cornering.
Hankook improved a lot in the last years, for sure, but the S1 Evo³ testresults disappointed me.
https://reifenpresse.de/201...
Worst result in wet, and not very good at dry.
Hope a new V12 would come and be better.
And OK, Bridgestone is maybe still the world largest tyre manufacturer but at least here in Germany I don´t see any sportive tyre from BS. The S001 is only competive in dry, RE002 was a disappointment for me, and some other tyres like RE 003 was never available.
The last winter tyre from BS was the LM32 and it wasn´t even a midrange-tyre.
Atm I don´t would be a Bridgestone, even if the LM005 get some good test results
"here in Germany I don´t see any sportive tyre from BS" Look into the fairly recent Bridgestone Potenza S007A, it should be competitive with the other UHP tyres.
It's true that despite still being used for OE fitments, the Potenza S001 is rather outdated.
I've had zero information from Bridgestone on the s007a. It's like it doesn't exist in Europe.
The S007A isn´t available in sizes below 245 and maybe not really made for everyday use, especially in the wet.
It´s available now in Germany. Renault Megane R.S. Trophy use it out of the factory
Surely a premium brand and way cheaper than others in my dimensions 215/45/18. Hankook s1 evo 3 (K127) are 35% cheaper than michelin ps4 or continental premium contact 6.
Have you tested them? are they as good as those tyres?
Good news for Hankook who have been making an improved product but and it is a big but; will the Europeans rue the day that market dominance started moving eastward? Since manufacturing has been moving east, it seems design and engineering is doing likewise which will spell a huge change. This could be a milestone for the ruination of established industry names (albeit a few years later). I wonder how the future will judge this.
They just need to get their arses into gear with the winter/all season tyres now, as these are still very midrange on the whole, particularly the all season.
The question is, will Nokian ever attain this status in this country, they are about there performance wise, but since they don't have any interest in oe fitments, they can never get 3 out of these 3 criteria...
Nokian actually have OE winter fitment in a number of regions, and I'm fairly sure one of those OE fitments is Porsche. Sadly their turnover is way off the big 7, so I'm not sure they'll ever quite have the market clout to be in a position like Hankook.
https://www.tyrepress.com/w...
Sumitomo [Falken] are probably the next closest. Arguably if you opened up the "premium" term, you could include them and Yokohama.
Yes Falken are certainly making big waves!
Yoko are suposed to be premium, and have a lot of oe, but they just arent that good, it surprises me that they get oe fitments given their performance, as a rule of thumb, they tend to be consistently poor in the wet. I used to hold them in high esteem as a youngster as during the 90's they were THE performance tyre (at least according to car mags) so was disappointed as a car owner to find their test results pretty awful. Anyway, I digress... ?
Yes I wouldn't use anything else even on my domestic Family Hatch in the 80s and 90s Yokohama seemed to be the best in all areas - then, one day, I got a new pair and they were not so good in the wet and there followed reports of them not being so special and I have never gone back to them since
Never forget Apollo Vredestein ;). I love their tyres for everyday use