Toyo Has Made A Winter Tire You Can Leave On All Year

Toyo has made a tire which is “Alpine Stamped” that means even in provinces where winter tires are the law, you could use The Celsius. However, they say it’s good for year-round use. How cool is that?

Could the Toyo Celsius be the last tire you ever need?

Well if you’re a yankee-doodle lifted-truck mud-chuckin coal-rollin truck bro… probably not. However, the rest of us with ordinary cars might see this innovation as something really special. In a press release today, Toyo Tire U.S.A. revealed a tire that is winter-approved, meaning it bears the “Alpine” Stamp (That’s the little symbol with the mountain and the slowflake). This is huge news for people in provinces like Quebec where winter tires are required by law.

It’s not a winter, it’s not an all season, it’s being called a “Variable-Conditions” tire. There are a couple competitor designs available from Kumho and Hankook as well, and here’s a little rundown about what makes these tires winter-approved yet still applicable for all year.

Asymmetric tread

Commonly, winter tires use a symmetric tread, they are not designed with anything other than snow and ice in mind. Toyo says it has found an asymmetric tread pattern which can deal with dry and watery conditions, while still preserving grip in snowy and icy conditions. Also, the inner part of the tread and the sipes of the tread include “Snow Claws” a common feature on winter tires, guess what they claw through.

Compound

Toyo has gone with an all-season rubber compound, which is not typically recommended for winter conditions. This is because when the weather reaches below 7˚C the compound gets really hard (think like a hockey puck) at which point it cannot conform to the road surface as well. The contact I spoke with at Toyo said they have found a way around this in the “Matrix” like sipe structure. Basically while the tire’s rubber compound may harden in colder conditions, the structure of the sipes will remain soft and mailable, to continue moving snow in the way they were intended. All this seems legit or else it wouldn’t bear that winter tire holy-grail, the Alpine Mountain Snowflake symbol.

These two factors combined, Compound Science and Tread movement has lead to a tire that is not only approved for use in winter, but also comes with a 100,000km treadware warranty… Read that again, 100,000km treadware from a winter tire. As in don’t bother taking it off, you’re good. That is pretty amazing. The Toyo Celsius will be available in the USA soon, and a Canadian release is tentatively predicted to be around the 2nd half of 2016.

See toyotires.com for third-party testing, warranty and Trial Offer details.

So what does this mean to you? I know personally, I’d love a tire that’s flexible enough to get me around these Ottawa winters and last on a few road trips in the summer as well. Do Calgarians trust the Celsius? Will Montrealers flock to this one-time tire purchase? Let’s see tire tech continue to improve in these ways, it feels like it would save regular consumers a lot of money and stress.

Here’s some closeups. On a side-note, dat TSW Chicane

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