Hankook Tire adds Fiat to growing original equipment portfolio

• To fit Fiat 500 and Panda with Kinergy Eco², a tire with the perfect balance of compound, construction, and profile
• Hankook’s proven advanced technology successfully leads to equipping Fiat with its original equipment tires for the first time

Seoul, Korea, November 26, 2020 – Global leading tire company Hankook Tire will equip Fiat with its original equipment tire, Kinergy Eco², expanding its ever-growing global original equipment.

The Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda, always European leaders in their segment, are the first FCA city cars fitted with the new gasoline Mild Hybrid technology and they are the first step towards the electrification of the Fiat brand. The two models, icons of style, design and “Made in Italy” around the world, now improves fuel efficiency, reducing CO2 emissions on average by 20% and up to 30%.

Hankook’s Kinergy Eco² also adds to these efforts toward saving the environment. Already apparent from the name itself, the Kinergy Eco² is designed to provide the best mileage while not sacrificing driving performance.

The tire adapts a newly developed compound with optimized crosslinking density and a combination of high loading fillers and high molecular weight-functionalized polymer, resulting in a much more enhanced wet and wear performance. The profile for wear was also improved by increasing the contact width and a new pattern applied with optimized contact ratio. With such technologies, Kinergy Eco² has gained the highest grade, grade A (RRC below 6.5), from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union’s labelling of tires.

Along with the environmental aspects, Kinergy Eco²’s strong points lies in its wet and dry performance. A number of features were altered from the previous model to improve wet performance, starting from wide lateral shoulder grooves that were incorporated into the internal blocks, the aqua-edge technology that improves wet braking, and to optimum chamfers and increased center block stiffness, new technologies and designs were introduced to resolve hydroplaning.

“Finding the perfect combination of compound, construction and profile to meet all necessary performances was the key to developing Kinergy Eco². We achieved a breakthrough by developing the innovative compound and a mold profile specialized to post low rolling resistance,” explains Moonhwa Hong, Vice President of OE Development Department.

“We are beyond happy to be able to start the original equipment tire supply to the largest automobile manufacturer in Italy, Fiat. The Kinergy Eco², with its profile, will undoubtedly be able to post the best fit to the Fiat and we believe this was made possible by our continuous aspiration toward providing best performing tires,” said Hyunjun Cho, Head of Hankook OE Division.

Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda will both be equipped with Hankook’s Kinergy Eco² in 175/65R14T size. Hankook Tire started supplying original equipment tires to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2017 with Fiat Tipo. With the addition of Fiat, Hankook Tire continues to expand its global automotive partnership and successfully supplying original equipment tires for 46 automakers.