Yokohama Tire Chosen as OE for Volkswagen Tiguan

Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., has announced that it has begun supplying 17-inch (215/65R17 99V) “BluEarth-A AE-50” tires as the OE tire for the Volkwagen Tiguan which will be sold in Russia. The Japanese tire manufacturer started supplying the tire from January 2018. Volkswagen is making the Tiguan cars through its local subsidiary Volkswagen Group Rus. The supply of 17-inch tires follows on the supply of 18-inch (235/55R18 100V) “BluEarth-A AE-50” tires that began in June 2017.

The BluEarth-A AE-50” tires were developed under the “YOKOHAMA Pursuit of Driving Pleasure” concept. They are fuel-efficient tires which are notable for their outstanding wet grip and other characteristics that provide motorists with a highly comfortable ride and outstanding driving performance irrespective of the road conditions.
Volkswagen gave a high rating to the tire when it assessed the performance of the “BluEarth-A AE-50” tire. Volkswagen went on to select the “BluEarth-A AE-50” tire as its first Yokohama tire for an OE fitment. Volkswagen Group Rus., selected the tire as OE for the Volkswagen Jetta in Russia with two tire sizes—205/55R16 91V and 195/65R15 91H being chosen for use on the Jetta.

Yokohama’s “BluEarth-A AE-50” tires for the Tiguan and the Jetta are being made by the tire manufacturer’s manufacturing and sales subsidiary in Russia, LLC Yokohama R.P.Z., which was set up in December 2008. The company had begun production of tires close to the end of 2011. Yokohama thus became the first Japanese company to manufacture passenger car tires on a local basis in Russia. The capacity of the plant owned by Yokohama’s Russian subsidiary has since been scaled up to 1.6 million tires a year, a 2.3-fold jump from its original capacity when it had commenced operations in 2012.