Hankook Tire 'Kinergy 4S2 X' Receives 'Best' Rating from European Specialty Magazine

Best Performance in All-Weather Tire Test

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire) announced on the 16th that it received the ‘Excellent’ rating, awarded only to the top tires, in the all-weather tire category for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in a test conducted by Germany’s leading automotive magazine Auto Bild Allrad.

Auto Bild Allrad is a specialized sister publication of Auto Bild, the most reputable automotive magazine in Europe, focusing on SUVs.

In this test, which involved 11 brands including Hankook Tire, Michelin, Continental, and Goodyear, all-weather tires of size 225/50R18 were mounted on a BMW X1 vehicle. The tires were evaluated on 14 performance criteria including grip and braking on snowy, wet, and dry roads, as well as drainage performance.

Among them, Hankook Tire’s Kinergy 4S2 X demonstrated consistently excellent performance across various climatic driving conditions, earning the top-tier ‘Excellent’ rating. It showed better grip on snowy roads and driving stability than winter tires, and scored highly in safety-critical performance areas such as braking, handling, and drainage. Notably, Hankook Tire was the only brand alongside Michelin to receive the ‘Excellent’ rating, proving its technological prowess as a global top-tier brand.

The Kinergy 4S2 X is the first all-weather tire in Korea to obtain the ‘3PMSF’ certification, a mandatory mark for winter tires in Europe, delivering optimal driving performance across a wide range of climate changes from the first rainy season wet roads to snowy winter conditions.

The tread center features wide grooves that provide excellent drainage performance, and a zigzag intersecting V-shaped groove pattern that offers outstanding snow driving and handling capabilities. Additionally, the Aqua Fine compound is applied to provide excellent braking power on wet and snowy roads.

Meanwhile, Hankook Tire has made efforts to replace petrochemical raw materials with eco-friendly materials throughout the entire production process, resulting in the acquisition of the ISCC PLUS, the world’s first global eco-friendly material international certification system in the tire industry, in November last year.

Based on this, the representative products Kinergy 4S2 and Kinergy 4S2 X were developed, both of which utilize the characteristics of natural raw materials to achieve performance equal to or exceeding that of products made with conventional petrochemical raw materials.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.