Goodyear Launches New Wrangler Outbound AT
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. recently held a ride-and-drive for several key dealers to launch its new Goodyear Wrangler Outbound AT.
The event took place at a forest area outside Charlotte, N.C.
On hand for the ride-and-drive was Mark Stewart, Goodyear's president and CEO, who told dealers the launch was part of the company’s strategy to revamp its product portfolio more rapidly than in the past.
"It is absolutely our commitment to bring a top-notch product, top-notch products, filling in the premium part of the portfolio and refreshing other pieces in a much faster way,” said Stewart. He noted that Goodyear has revamped its engineering teams and is hoping to introduce and/or refresh 1,800 SKUs through the end of next year.
While introducing the Goodyear Wrangler Outbound AT to dealers, Jonathon Thomas, director, category strategy and planning, said the new product is an all-terrain tire designed to meet the needs of “the four core consumer groups” – safety (highway driving); versatility; off-road adventure, which the company views as the toughest customer; and the workforce customer.
Thomas said the Goodyear Wrangler Outbound AT is designed for fitment on SUVs and light trucks, such as the GMC Yukon, Ford F-150, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Toyota 4Runner. The tire features a layer of Kevlar under its tread, as well as Goodyear’s Durawall sidewall compounding to help resist abrasions, cuts and punctures.
Goodyear views the Michelin LTX A/T2 and LTX Trail, the Bridgestone Dueler A/T Ascent and the Continental TerrainContact A/T as the tire's main competitors, Thomas told dealers.
The Goodyear Wrangler Outbound AT's all-new tread design and compound deliver confident handling on dirt and gravel, while delivering strong on-road performance when wet weather strikes. The Wrangler Outbound AT is also backed by an up to 65,000-mile limited tread life limited warranty for its metric sizes and a 60,000-mile limited tread life warranty for its LT sizes.
The Goodyear Wrangler Outbound AT will come in 26 sizes, fitting wheels ranging from 16 inches to 22 inches in diameter, with aspect ratios of 50 to 80 and section widths of 235 to 285.
"And we’ve got a nice range of other sizes that we’re considering right now in terms of line extension in the future for more 22-inch and maybe some 24-inch sizes,” said Thomas. At present, the tire has market coverage of 57% in the 16-inch to 22-inch range.
The company plans to keep the Goodyear Wrangler AT Adventure in its line-up for OE fitments, according to Thomas. He indicated, however, that all the replacement sizes that are not OE fitments are transitioning to the Goodyear Wrangler Outbound AT.
While not mentioned at the event, Goodyear is also introducing other tires to its light truck line-up. The Goodyear Wrangler Workhorse AT 2 is designed for light trucks, work vans and SUVs such as the Ford F-Series, Ram ProMaster and Chevrolet Tahoe. The company says the Wrangler Workhorse AT 2 delivers wet traction and a limited tread life warranty of 55,000 miles. In addition, the tire carries the 3-Peak Mountain Snowflake designation on all sizes. It’s built to perform in tough job-site conditions and across demanding rural routes.
Also being introduced is the Goodyear Wrangler ElectricDrive AT. The company says it is specifically designed and engineered for electric SUVs and pickup trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T and Rivian R1S. The Wrangler ElectricDrive AT offers all-terrain capability and also has the 3PMS designation. In addition, the tire features Goodyear’s SoundComfort Technology, helping to reduce levels of interior noise and is backed with a 50,000-mile limited tread life warranty.