Continental Tire the Americas LLC introduced several new tires at its annual Gold Dealer meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, this week.
The rollout of the new tire lines will take place throughout 2024. At the same time, Andrew Hyland, product manager, told the over 700 dealers who were in attendance the company is consolidating lines for better inventory management for its dealers.
More from the Continental Gold meeting: Continental has added 200 Gold dealers in the last year. And the tiremaker is leaning into its exclusive sponsorship with Major League Soccer (MLS).
The Continental TrueContact Tour 54 will launch in August and will replace the TrueContact Tour and PureContact LS tire lines. The tire will come in 60 sizes, ranging from 15-inch to 20-inch wheel diameters; and 40 to 65 aspect ratios. The T- and H- speed rated tires carry an 80,000-mile warranty while the V-rated tires will come with a 70,000-mile warranty.
The TrueContact Tour 54 is targeted for the owners of premium sedans, coupes, minivans and CUVs, with an emphasis on long wear, confident grip in dry, wet, and wintry conditions, said Hyland.
Hyland added, “In all our project development and product development, we incorporate ICE vehicles, EV vehicles, and hybrids. We want to enforce and reinforce our message — our TrueContact Tour 54 will be our first car tire U.S. replacement line that has an actual EV Ready EV logo on it."
The main competitors for the TrueContact Tour 54 are the Michelin Defender 2; Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack; Pirelli P7 AS Plus 3; and the Goodyear Assurance MaxLife, Hyland said.
The company is also launching its Continental VanContact A/S Ultra, a premium, all-weather tire for cargo vans. Hyland said this tire is a global worldwide replacement tire by the company. It will come in three sizes and is targeted at the last-mile delivery customer and fleets of all sizes. The tire will carry the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake designation. It also features a “brick sidewall design for increased robustness against curbs,” said Hyland.
The final addition(s) to Continental’s tire lineup will be the ProContact TX 10, a premium all-season touring tire with “sportier” performance; the ProContact GX, a luxury A/S balanced performance tire and the ProContact RX, a luxury, all-season touring tire with an emphasis on dry and wet handling, said Hyland.
Turning to the General tire side, Hyland said the company is replacing its G-Max AS 05 and Grabber UHP lines with the G-Max AS 07. The tire is designed as an all-season ultra-high-performance tire for passenger cars, crossovers, light trucks and SUVs. It will come in 77 sizes.
The target customers are owners of muscle cars, sports cars, crossovers, SUVs and trucks that value performance in all seasons, said Hyland.
The final new tire line that was introduced is the General Grabber A/T Sport (an all-season, all-terrain tire for light trucks and SUVs) and the Grabber A/T Sport-W for the same vehicles but carrying the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake badge.
The Grabber A/T Sport will come in sizes for 17-inch and 18-inch wheel diameters while the Grabber A/T Sport-W will come in 18-inch to 20-inch rim diameters.
