Radar Tires is targeting the all-terrain light truck tire segment with the new Renegade A/T, a product the company says provides tier-one performance at tier-three pricing.

The firm recently launched the Renegade A/T in Portugal with a ride-and-drive event for key distributors and dealers. The multi-day event saw Radar customers put the tire through its paces, driving across a wide range of on- and off-road surfaces and through a variety of quickly changing weather conditions.

Meeting Europe’s strict performance standards but engineered and manufactured specifically for North America, the Renegade A/T is currently available in a number of popular sizes for light truck and SUV applications and will come in nearly 90 sizes – fitting wheels ranging from 15 inches to 24 inches in diameter - by the end of 2026.

The tire also comes with a 50,000-mile limited treadwear warranty, a road hazard warranty of two years or 4/32-inch wear, a 30-day satisfaction guarantee and “MAP (minimum advertised pricing) protection across the line,” according to Radar officials.

Features include Radar’s Terrain King tread design, which boasts a rugged, aggressive tread pattern for optimal traction, dense siping and rigid tread blocks for a smooth, quiet ride on the highway and other performance benefits; Omnishield grooves that sport a serrated groove geometry for protection against stone drilling and stone ejectors to help minimize debris retention; and a tread compound “built for the most challenging conditions and a wide temperature range” and offering a high degree of chip and cut resistance and “traction in all conditions,” including wet surfaces.

Other features include the “Circle of Tread Life,” a Radar-designed tread wear depth indicator that tire dealership salespeople “can demo in seconds,” plus a serrated, dual sidewall design with “laser-treated brand and product lettering on one side for a premium shelf presence” and an alternate design on the other side, say Radar officials.

Many all-terrain tire buyers are interested in “cosmetics,” said Olli Seppala, Radar’s global head of research and development.

Developing an all-terrain tire “is a long process and it’s one of the most difficult tires to develop because you have to take into account so many variables,” he added. Safety and performance are critical concerns, “but then you have to take into account aesthetics. It has to be appealing to customers."

When designing the Renegade A/T, Radar focused on creating a tread pattern that looked “rugged and aggressive. Then (the tire) is used off-road and it has to perform there, as well.”

A product and a program

Radar's tagline is "premium accessibility," Rob Montasser, the company's vice president, told attendees before the ride-and-drive started. "In our ads, we say 'Engineered for more. Priced for less.' We're benchmarking our products against tier-one and tier-two competitors. That's the level of performance we want."

Radar is also benchmarking the customer support it provides "against tier-one competitors," he added. “We want to be able to provide tier-one support” when it comes to programs, sales reinforcement and warranties, but at “tier-three pricing.”

The company is using a MAP (minimum advertised pricing) program to position the Renegade A/T at a level that provides margin for both distributors and retailers, according to Montasser.

“We go market-back, but we’re also making sure that as a distributor, there’s margin for you, and as a retailer, there’s margin for you. So we set the MAP price to make sure the margin is acceptable.”

Montasser also pointed to the Radar RED (Radar Elite Dealer) associate dealer program as another pillar of support. The rapidly growing initiative has nearly 2,000 members. “Our Radar RED program (provides) support in the field.”

Today, Radar has nine field salespeople “and by the end of the year, we’ll have 30. That’s the target. It’s their job to create sellout demand for our distributors. They’re in the field, signing up people for the program and teaching them about Radar.”

Shifting to distribution, Montasser told attendees that Radar has doubled the capacity of its distribution center in Dallas, Texas. (The company has three distribution centers in the U.S.)

“These are all things we’re doing in the market,” he said. The company wants its distributors “to make money. We want retailers to make money. And we want to give tier-one support as a brand. Everything we’re doing is to provide tier-one support at tier-three pricing.” 

‘A generational thing’ 

Radar President and CEO G.S. Sareen told attendees that the company, which sources products from 24 manufacturing sites around the world that together produce more than 10 million tires annually, wants “to build the Radar brand and we want to tell the dealer that you can pitch” Radar brand products, including the Renegade A/T, against any competitor “in terms of product quality. And the pricing is so you can have that delta, where you can make a lot more money than you’re making today.”

The Renegade A/T “will not lack in performance,” he said. “It will not lack in aesthetics. The only thing we lack is brand awareness. That will be built over time. For me, this is a generational thing. We’re in no rush. It’s not that we design a tire, throw it out there and see what sticks. That’s not how we’ve done it.

"The whole direction of the company is to build products that really perform and not just at the entry-level," he said. "At the end of the day, it’s the retailer who will sell" the Renegade A/T and other Radar products. "This is a very long-term game.”