EU Tyre label explained

From May 2021, Regulation (EU) 2020/740 applies, changing the way tyres are labelled. Find out more about the meaning of the tyre label and what’s new about the tyre energy rating.

Viewing tyre label information

Sava has worked closely with the European Institutions on the updated tyre label to promote industry innovation and to help consumers make more informed decisions about their tyres. We believe that the new EU tyre label will allow consumers to obtain more relevant and comparable information on tyre parameters and empower end-users to make an informed choice when purchasing new tyres. The new EU tyre label also provides more detailed information available online – making it easier for consumers and professionals to make the right choice. We prepared a more detailed tyre label explanation for you in the following sections.

The EU tyre label and efficiency classes come in a new design and slightly changed due to a newly formed scale. The former standard label only showed tyre classes with regard to rolling resistance, wet grip and external rolling noise. The new EU tyre label holds additional information on tyre performances in snow and ice weather conditions. The scale of the label classes for wet grip and rolling resistance now have 5 instead of 7 classes, designated with the letters A to E.

5 classes from E (least efficient) to A (most efficient)

Effect may vary among vehicles and driving conditions, but the difference between a E and an A class for a complete set of tyres could reduce fuel consumption by up to 7.5 %* and even more in case of trucks. Fuel savings and road safety depend heavily on the behavior of drivers and eco‐driving can significantly reduce fuel consumption.

Note: fuel savings and road safety depend heavily on the behavior of drivers and eco‐driving can significantly reduce fuel consumption.

5 classes from E (longest braking distances) to A (shortest braking distances)

Effect may vary among vehicles and driving conditions, but in the case of full braking, the difference between a E and an A class for a set of four identical tyres could be up to 30% shorter braking distance (e.g. for a typical passenger car driving at 80 km/h speed this could be up to 18m shorter braking distance)*. Stopping distances must always be respected.”

In addition to the noise value in Decibel dB(A) a letter (from A to C) displays whether the tyre external rolling noise performance is above the United Nation Reg 117 mandatory limit value

(Class C = noisier tyre), the tyre noise is higher than the UN limit

(Class B = average tyre) or more than 3 dB below the limit value

(Class A = low noise tyre).

NB: The tyre external rolling noise is not entirely correlated to vehicle interior noise.