For the new summer tyre, the manufacturer has made significant safety advances in the PremiumContact 7 including the introduction of leading technologies such as a size-specific design, innovative RedChili compound for the tread and an adaptive tread design.
The PremiumContact 7 is available in selected sizes, with many popular tyre sizes between 16 and 21 inches available by the end of the year, including fitments for vehicles such as the Hyundai Kona Elektro, Audi A1 and VW Golf, among others.
Denise Sperl, Director of Research & Development Car Tyres EMEA at Continental Tyres, said: “The new generation is the flagship of our brand. Our objective was to develop the safest tyre on the market, which offers our customers a comfortable and carefree ride at all times – with the PremiumContact 7, we deliver peace of mind for the entire family.”
Continental has improved the passenger car tyre in all safety-relevant areas. The predecessor PremiumContact 6 achieved 34 test wins in renowned international trade magazines over its entire lifetime. “We are confident that we will continue this success story with the PremiumContact 7,” says Denise Sperl.
Like the SportContact 7, the PremiumContact 7 is tailor-made for a wide range of vehicle concepts – according to weight, size and drive system. Since heavy vehicles require different tyre solutions than light passenger cars, the specifications of the PremiumContact 7 have been adapted to each vehicle class. “We have had such good experiences in terms of customised design with the SportContact 7 that we are again rolling out this technology for the PremiumContact 7,” says Sperl. With the rise of electric vehicles with particularly long ranges and high performance, the safety aspect is gaining importance in this segment. In addition to improvements in rolling resistance and mileage, the PremiumContact 7 provides high grip and low braking distances for vehicles of all drive types, thanks to its customised designs.
Another new feature of the PremiumContact 7 is the innovative RedChili compound: The rubber compound for tyres is usually made up of natural rubber and synthetic components. Because each element requires a specific temperature to achieve optimum performance, the grip of the tyre can also be influenced via a targeted selection and composition of the materials. With the new compound for the PremiumContact 7, Continental has succeeded in enabling optimum performance across the broadest possible temperature range. This allows the tyre to develop high grip even at low temperatures in daily traffic – without any prior warm-up phase. Customers particularly benefit from this during the transitional spring and autumn months.
The adaptive tread design of the PremiumContact 7 ensures even greater stability and ride comfort on both wet and dry roads: Wide lateral openings in the outer areas of the tread pattern provide optimum drainage when driving straight ahead because the ground contact surface ends precisely at the point with the widest opening. During cornering, the ground contact surface shifts outward and the lateral openings close again, providing more rubber and better grip on the road. “In this way, we have resolved the tradeoff between optimal water removal and perfect dry handling. The result is excellent driving stability on wet surfaces, during braking, cornering and accelerating,” says Denise Sperl.
The new technologies have been tested both virtually in tread and tyre simulations as well as in the lab, and of course on test tracks in southern France, Germany, the Czech Republic and the US. The mileage of the PremiumContact 7 alone was tested over a distance of 150,000 kilometres and permanently optimised. The developers were therefore able to increase this value by ten percent compared to the predecessor model. Wet handling has been improved by five percent, wet braking by as much as seven percent, and aquaplaning by two percent. The PremiumContact 7 now achieves an “A” wet grip class rating on the EU tyre label. Dry handling and braking were both improved by three percentage points.
