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KENDA TIRE’S INVESTMENT IN TECHNICAL CENTRE DRIVES HIGH RESULTS IN TCS TESTS

March 5th, 2023

In recent test results published by the Swiss Touring Club (TCS) KENDA Tire Europe’s KR210 KENETICA PRO tire beat some of the biggest names in the business, across certain test criteria, to achieve a three star ‘recommended’ rating. KENDA firmly attributes this success to its continued investment in its Research & Development centre.

The KENDA Europe Technical Centre (KETC) which opened in 2018 in Winsen, Germany, employs a team of experts under the guidance of Frits van der Steege, Technical Director for KENDA Europe and STARCO. Here, KENDA tires are rigorously tested both on the road and in the lab.

In the TCS tests, the KENDA KR210 KENETICA PRO was awarded an impressive 11th place out of 50 summer tires (across: budget, quality or second line, and premium) rigorously tested for safety, durability, and environmental impact. The tests were carried out by TCS experts at its headquarters in Ostermundigen, Switzerland to celebrate 50 years of testing. 

The KENDA KR210 KENETICA PRO, which was engineered in the KETC in Germany, achieved a ‘recommended’ rating and three stars, beating five of the premium branded tires tested in terms of overall grade. When it comes to performance, this tire reported good results on both wet and dry road surfaces. In terms of safety, it achieved a two percent higher rating on wet roads and an overall four percent increase on a comparable tire from a market leader, and with regards to noise (ii) and environmental balance it held its own, achieving an average on par with the premium segment. 

“We are very proud of our position. The results of these tests prove that we are heading in the right direction,” explains KENDA’s Henno Plaggenborg, Director of Automotive Division, Europe.

“Pivotal to this success is our committed investment in a large-scale expansion of our European development facility, which includes modern development laboratories and the very latest measuring and testing technology for quality control.”

(i) Under the environmental impact the sub criterion ‘noise’ is based on the individual criteria interior noise (subjective assessment) and external noise.       

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