By Denna Bowman

Continental tyres has announced it has received two new original equipment approvals from Mercedes-Benz.

The sporty CLS sedan will roll off the line with tyres from the development department in Hanover and Continental has also been awarded another approval for tyres for the high-end versions of the Viano and the Vito.

Mercedes decided on tyres from the development department of Europe’s leading tyre manufacturer since the tyre models transfer handling performance reliably to the road while saving fuel.

Tyres of the sizes 255/35 R 19 and 285/30 R 19 will be fit on the CLS, which boasts power of up to 300kW (408 HP). The Viano and Vito, with up to 119 kW (approx. 162 HP), now also features the ContiSportContact 5 of the size 245/45 R 19.

Both summer tyre models are specialised for their application: The ContiSportContact 5 P was designed with powerful sporty vehicle in mind. ContiSportContact 5 – its “little brother” – provides for good grip, reliable cornering performance and short braking distances on sporty cars and powerful vans.

Continental labels the tyres of the ContiSportContact 5 P model for the CLS with the additional designation “MO” (Mercedes original equipment).

The advertising award category is always one of the highlights of the TAFF Awards and the 2011 finalists are all strong contenders.

Continental took the honours in 2010 and 2009 and have made it into the final five again this year along with Hankook, Michelin, Pirelli and newcomer Infinity Tyres Europe.

The ‘Industry Advertising Campaign Award, sponsored by Tyres and Accessories magazine, has always showcased a series of creative and effective advertising campaigns, across a variety of media.

Here is a synopsis of the finalists entries:

Continental Tyre Group: Conti4×4Trophy

The Conti4×4Trophy has been one of the biggest promotions staged by Continental, where consumers competed to win the trip of a lifetime in Morocco driving Hummers through the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert.

Hankook Tyre UK: Be One With It

Hankook are delighted to have also been nominated for the 2011 TAFF Awards for the ‘Industry Advertising Campaign Award’. Earlier this year saw the launch of Hankook’s new global advertising campaign ‘Be One with It’. This formed part of the brand’s strategy to become one of the world’s top premium tyre makers.
The campaign focuses on the driver’s feeling of ‘being one’ with the tyre and the road. Extreme sports such as ‘base jumping’ with specially designed wing suits are utilised to present the theme. The message that confidence in equipment brings out the best performance in sports is consistent with Hankook’s assurance in its tyres enabling the best possible driving experience.

Tony Lee, managing director of Hankook UK said “We are thrilled to have been nominated for the ‘Industry Advertising Campaign Award’ as we endeavour to further enhance the dynamic Hankook brand. The success of our ‘Be One with It’ campaign is further acknowledged with the association to the TAFF Awards which we are excited to be part of for both highly commendable categories.”

Michelin Tyre Plc

Michelin’s UK advertising campaign is being deployed across a wide range of multi media platforms. These include television, consumer and trade magazines, national newspapers, posters in motorway service stations, web advertising and substantial POS coverage. Computer animation and imaging has made the Michelin Man even more visible and is greatly improving recall of Michelin’s messages.

The main brand message has been ‘the right tyre changes everything’. Following on from last year’s themes of fuel saving and safety, the third phase of the campaign in 2011 is longevity.

Pirelli Tyres

Since the 1950s, when Pirelli’s adverts first featured the world’s most successful racing driver – Juan Manuel Fangio – to promote its Stelvio tyres, the Italian company has been well known for its innovative and stylish advertising campaigns. These ads perfectly reflect Pirelli’s traditional brand values of sophistication, elegance and technology.

Times have changed but Pirelli’s message has remained the same, with the slogan ‘power is nothing without control’ becoming an industry standard, personified by sprinter Carl Lewis on the starting blocks for a race – wearing stiletto heels.

Infinity Tyres Europe Ltd

Here’s how Infinity Tyres Europe general manager, Jorge Crespo, summed up the company’s recent advertising campaign: “We wanted the tyre to be the main character of the show, as opposed to most tyre adverts and campaigns where tyres are not protagonists (usually you show pictures of nice cars, models or kids to try and awake emotional engagement)…we defined the personality of the Infinity brand to be fresh, young, dynamic, technically advanced and forward looking.

“Because everybody was doing the adverts on physical photos of the tyres, we decided to x-ray all our different tyres, reinforcing the patterns’ cosmetic appearance, playing with our corporate identity colour (the blue) and the company DNA.”

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Denna Bowman

Continental has completed its acquisition of India’s Modi Tyres for a round $25 million.

The German tyres manufacturer will rename its new company Continental Tyres India Ltd.

The new business will focus on local production and distribution of bias and radial tyres as well as radial passenger car tyres for the Indian market.

Continental Tyres India will have its registered office in Delhi with manufacturing facilities in Modipuram and Partapur. An integration team is working with the new employees on achieving an optimal start for Continental Tyres India, with the full set of resources now available from Continental.

Both parties have agreed to keep other commercial details of the transaction confidential, however, the total amount that Continental paid to buy 5.6 million shares in Modi Tyres Company includes a non-compete fee $3.87 million.

By Denna Bowman

The importance of social media has been highlighted by news that Continental is introducing two new truck tyres in response to comments on Facebook.

The tyres manufacturer has based its decision after an enthusiastic response from the Mid- America Trucking Show and ExpoCam trush show in Canada, teamed with positive feedback on its Facebook page.

The message they received from customers has led Continental to launch not one, but two super single truck tyres.

In March the company invited people to visit its trucking show booth and offer opinions about two competing designs for a wide single drive tyre on its Facebook page.

The company repeated the invitation at Canada’s national truck show, ExpoCam, in early April. After speaking with hundreds of show visitors and reading the comments left for the research and development team on Facebook, it decided both designs should be brought to market.

Clif Armstrong, director of marketing, said: “Originally when we invited our customers to give us feedback on the designs for the product, we were envisioning one, wide single drive tyre for highway use.

“However, the response was enthusiastic for both designs – so much so that we knew they both had a legitimate place in our product portfolio.”

It’s about the time when the kids start bringing home their end of year reports - but in the meantime Continental tyres have invited our little ones to give a candid report on our driving habits!

The results will raise a few eyebrows, with 63 per cent revealing their parents are aggressive drivers and 13 per cent scared or embarrassed by their mum and dad’s driving.

But one of the things that tickled us was how underwhelmed our children are by the car their parents drive - with 42 per cent wishing they were chauffeured in a cooler vehicle.

Whilst most kids favour a sports car or 4×4, a surprising 14 per cent of those aged four to seven want the family car to be a monster truck and another seven per cent want a camper van.

However, it’s not all bad news for mum and dad. When asked if their parents drove them around enough for their activities and to see friends, a reassuring 84 per cent of the 1,000 children quizzed said yes.

Denna Bowman, Head Office

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By Denna Bowman

Nearly two-thirds of children admit their mums and dads are aggressive drivers, according to a poll by a leading tyres manufacturer.

And the survey carried out for Continental tyres also revealed that 13 per cent are scared or embarrassed by their parents performance behind the wheel of a car, while 23 per cent of the children said that they had been in an accident with either mum or dad driving.

Continental tyres surveyed 1,000 children between the ages of four and 16 and asked them to report what they had witnessed and to say how they felt about their parents driving - and the results might make mum and dad think twice about their behaviour.

When 1,000 children between the ages of four and 16 were polled with 63 per cent revealling their parents shout at other road users and one in five reported that their ‘responsible adult’ used a mobile phone while driving despite this being banned in December 2003.

The back-seat view revealed that 40 per cent of youngsters get upset when mum or dad loses it behind the wheel and one in three gets embarrassed.

The poor driving skills prompt 22 per cent of children to slump down in their seat to try to hide and one in five have told their elders to improve their driving, despite 14 per cent saying they were too scared to tell their parents that they were unimpressed.

Tim Bailey, safety expert for Continental Tyres said: “There are some serious failings highlighted here revealing poor driving practices and lack of courtesy by millions of motorists.

“What compounds that situation is the impact it has on the children. Nearly one in ten said they had gripped the seat in response to the speed of their parents driving.

“The assumption might have been that driving with a child in the car would prompt greater care and attention, but this evidence suggests not, and poor driving habits are potentially being ingrained in future motorists.”

According to four in five kids (80 per cent), dad is more likely to speed. However mum is nearly three times more likely to be their ‘taxi’ ferrying them to school, activities and friends.

Mr Bailey added: “Parents are normally very aware of the need to be good role models; this survey reminds them of the need to continue when they get behind the wheel.”

By Denna Bowman

Strong demand from both the original equipment and replacement markets have driven tyres production up by 10% for leading manufacturer Continental.

The German tyres company reports its total passenger and light commercial vehicle tyre production will be 10% higher this year than in 2010, according to Tyres and Accessories.

This equates to around 124 million tyres, which is a greater quantity than Continental has previously produced in the course of a year.

Despite this, Continental states its anticipated output is “not yet sufficient to cover the predicted long-term demand completely,” and it has therefore embarked on a capacity expansion programme.

Conti said its factories are at full production and have started making cold-weather tyres, in anticipation of strong demand in Europe, later in the year. Continental operates seven tyre plants in Europe alone.

Continental are trumpeting the eco-credentials of the new ContiEcoContact 5 which was developed in co-operation with Europe’s leading car manufacturers.

According to the German tyres manufacturer it sets new standards in terms of the environment and also improves safety.

The challenge facing tyre companies is to design a tyre that reduces rolling resistance and wear whilst also ensuring that it is still good at wet braking.

To achieve this, Conti’s tyre engineers started with a new approach to all four components of the tyre - design, contour, compound and tread pattern.

The result is a tyre that delivers reduced CO2 emissions and lower fuel consumption while still delivering excellent braking performance.

According to Continental: “This means that the ContiEcoContact 5 has 20% better rolling resistance than its predecessor leading to a 3% reduction in fuel consumption. Engineers have also improved wear by 12% and braking on wet roads by 10%.

“A specially developed compound and optimised tread grooves have lead to an improvement in grip in the wet. Continental’s tyre designers have combined this with functionalised polymer chains forming a stronger bond with the silica which gives lower rolling resistance. Extra thin sipes reduce tread deformation minimising energy loss.

“A higher apex and the use of additional bead reinforcements ensure safer and more direct transmission of the lateral forces which occur when steering on wet and dry roads. The lighter sidewall construction is more flexible in its design which also contributes towards improved rolling resistance.

The engineers also found that the tyre’s ground contact patch offered scope for reducing rolling resistance. The tyre developers at Continental managed to lessen movement in the belt structure by using a very flat contour and adapting the distribution of tread depths to suit this.”

The engineers also looked at the sidewall lettering on the tyre. A flatter, more smooth design now reduces the drag on the car helping to improve the aerodynamics of the overall vehicle.

The ContiEcoContact 5 is currently available in size 14-16 rim sizes.

Denna Bowman, Head Office

By Denna Bowman

UK motorists could save nearly £300 a year by adopting simple eco-driving techniques, according to research by Continental Tyres.

The tyres manufacturer claims that this could add up to a total nationwide saving of over £1 billion a year or the equivalent of a staggering £18,000 over the driving lifetime of a British motorist.

The research found that despite the fact that nearly 9 in 10 people are concerned about the rising cost of fuel, 40 per cent of us admit to being completely clueless when it comes to eco driving, which if used can save up to 20 per cent on fuel costs.

Tim Bailey, driving expert at Continental Tyres, said: “As fuel costs continue to rise, affordable motoring is a big concern. By making minor alterations to your driving technique and doing regular basic checks such as tyre pressure, motorists can save hundreds of pounds a year.

“Our research also discovered that over two thirds of motorists are unaware that tyres are now made that improve fuel efficiency through lower rolling resistance. At Continental we have developed a new tyre, the ContiEcoContact 5, tyre that can save three per cent on fuel and increase tyre mileage by 12 per cent.”

The survey also revealed that 50 per cent of people fear that further fuel increases will force them off the roads even though they rely on driving to get to work.

In terms of car-buying habits, 56 per cent now rate the environmental performance on a vehicle as an important consideration when buying a new car. 78 per cent would consider buying a hybrid car, 71 per cent a bio-diesel and 61 per cent would think about purchasing an electric car.

Continental Tyres eco driving tips:

Before you set off:

· Check the pressure of your tyres regularly (every two weeks is recommended). The right tyre pressure means less rolling resistance – and therefore reduced fuel consumption and more environmentally friendly driving. Incorrect pressures can also increase tyre wear and reduced safety.

· Get rid of unnecessary loads. This includes removing your roof rack whenever it is not needed - this alone can increase fuel consumption by up to 10% higher. Empty roof boxes are also thirsty gas guzzlers – remove if you are not using them.

· Think about whether a vehicle that you mainly use around town needs the spare tyre – a compressor with a tyre sealant like the ContiComfortKit is far lighter and saves room.

· Make sure your tyres are properly aligned to reduce fuel usage and avoid uneven wear which can cause you to prematurely replace your tyres.

· Plan unfamiliar journeys to reduce the chance of getting lost and check the traffic news before you go to avoid delays.

Whilst driving:

· After starting your engine, set off immediately. Modern motors no longer need a warm-up phase. In winter, scrape the ice rather than leave the car running for a long period to clear the windscreen.

· Always drive in the highest possible gear for the speed you are doing, but do not let the engine labour.

· Drive within the speed limit – the faster you go the more fuel you use. Driving at 70mph uses up to 9% more fuel than at 60mph and up to 15% more than at 50mph. Cruising at 80mph can use up to 25% more fuel than at 70mph.

· Avoid “racing starts” at traffic lights. Accelerate gradually and move up the gears quickly.

· Drive with a little anticipation and with a little more distance to the vehicle ahead of you. This way you can avoid harsh braking. Your vehicle needs much more energy to start rolling again after slowing down.

· Only turn on the air conditioning when really needed. In the summer, park in the shade or use a screen shade as this saves money on cooling down the car.

· Heated front/rear windows and demister blowers all use energy so make sure they’re off when you don’t need them.

By Denna Bowman

Continental has officially opened its first tyres plant in China in a bid to strengthen its position in the key market.

The tyres manufacturer is also keen to expand its strategic growth in Asia with the building of the milestone tyre plant in Hefei, in the Anhui province.

Dr. Elmar Degenhart, CEO of the Continental Corporation, said: “Asia is one of our key growth markets. This investment is another major step into this direction, with which we are significantly enhancing our position in the automotive industry in China and in the Asia Pacific region.”

From 2012 onwards, nearly every second car worldwide will be manufactured in Asia, and China will the growth leader.

Continental is aiming to have an over-proportional growth in China and has expanded its presence in 18 production locations, 15 sales offices, representing a workforce of approximately 14,000 in the country.

The new high technology facility will have an annual production capacity of four million passenger tyres, which will be sold in the local Chinese and Asian market.

Nikolai Setzer, Executive Board member responsible for the Passenger Car and Light Truck Tires division, added: “Continental’s tyres business has been globally growing substantially for the past years in both segments, passenger and light truck tyres as well as commercial vehicle tyres.

“The opening of our manufacturing plant in Hefei is a key milestone on our journey to enhancing strategic growth and further increasing our presence in China and overall in Asia.”