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All-season tyres set to be all the rage in 2026

Winters with little snow are leading to a shift in purchasing patterns

All-season tyres rose by 15 per cent in the second quarter of 2026. In the first half of the year, they grew by 9 per cent. Winter tyres, by contrast, fell by 5 per cent. The European tyre market is growing overall, whilst demand continues to shift towards all-season tyres.
THE KEY POINTS IN BRIEF
• All-season tyres are on the rise: sales rose by 15 per cent in the second quarter.
• Winter tyres are losing ground: sales fell by 5 per cent in the first half of the year.
• The tyre market is growing: sales of tyres for cars, SUVs and vans rose by 3 per cent in the second quarter.

All-sea­son tyres are in vogue in 2026: sales rose by 15 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter. Win­ter tyres, by con­trast, fell by 1 per cent. The Euro­pean tyre replace­ment mar­ket per­formed well in the sec­ond quar­ter of 2026. Tyres for pas­sen­ger cars, SUVs and light com­mer­cial vehi­cles increased by 3 per cent. At the same time, the mar­ket is shift­ing between the sea­son­al seg­ments. All-sea­son tyres are becom­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly more impor­tant. Win­ter tyres, on the oth­er hand, record­ed a 5 per cent decline in the first half of the year. The man­u­fac­tur­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion Tyres Europe pub­lished the lat­est sales fig­ures on 5 August 2026. The data cov­ers the sec­ond quar­ter and the first half of 2026.

All-season tyres are set to be all the rage in 2026: the market is growing

Accord­ing to Tyres Europe, the Euro­pean replace­ment tyre mar­ket is recov­er­ing across the board. At the same time, the break­down with­in the indi­vid­ual tyre seg­ments is chang­ing. Tyres for pas­sen­ger cars, SUVs and light com­mer­cial vehi­cles rose by 3 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter. In the first half of the year, the seg­ment record­ed growth of 2 per cent. All-sea­son tyres per­formed par­tic­u­lar­ly well, with sales ris­ing by 15 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter. For the first half of the year as a whole, this rep­re­sents growth of 9 per cent. All-sea­son tyres are thus con­tin­u­ing their growth tra­jec­to­ry. Fur­ther­more, they are increas­ing­ly gain­ing mar­ket share at the expense of tra­di­tion­al sea­son­al tyres.

Winter tyres are losing ground in the first half of 2026

Win­ter tyres, by con­trast, per­formed less well. Sales fell by 1 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter. Over the first half of the year as a whole, the decline amount­ed to 5 per cent. This means the trend is sig­nif­i­cant­ly weak­er than for all-sea­son tyres. Sum­mer tyres are also con­tin­u­ing to lose ground. Sales of these fell by 2 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter.

The lat­est fig­ures there­fore reveal a marked shift with­in the replace­ment tyre mar­ket. Flex­i­ble tyre con­cepts are becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant.

The performance of the individual segments

The fig­ures from the man­u­fac­tur­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion show vary­ing trends. In addi­tion to pas­sen­ger car tyres, com­mer­cial vehi­cle and agri­cul­tur­al tyres are also show­ing dif­fer­ing trends.

  • Sales of tyres for pas­sen­ger cars, SUVs and light com­mer­cial vehi­cles rose by 3 per cent.
  • In the first half of the year, this seg­ment record­ed a 2 per cent increase.
  • All-sea­son tyres grew by 15 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter.
  • In the first half of the year, sales of these tyres rose by 9 per cent.
  • Sales of sum­mer tyres fell by 2 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter.
  • Tyres for lor­ries and bus­es rose by 13 per cent.
  • In the first half of the year, this seg­ment grew by 7 per cent.
  • Sales of agri­cul­tur­al tyres fell by 7 per cent in the sec­ond quar­ter.
  • The decline was there­fore less severe than in the first quar­ter.

Demand for tyres is rising for commercial vehicles

Accord­ing to Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Adam McCarthy, demand sta­bilised in the sec­ond quar­ter. This trend was par­tic­u­lar­ly evi­dent in the mar­ket for lor­ry and bus tyres. How­ev­er, mileage fell over the same peri­od. Tyres Europe cites sev­er­al pos­si­ble con­tribut­ing fac­tors. These include high­er fuel prices and weak­er con­sumer con­fi­dence. These fac­tors may influ­ence the per­for­mance of the Euro­pean tyre mar­ket.

Tyre change: The weather remains a key factor

The well-known rule of thumb ‘from Octo­ber to East­er’ is pri­mar­i­ly intend­ed as a guide. How­ev­er, it does not replace the legal require­ments. This is because actu­al weath­er con­di­tions remain the deci­sive fac­tor when it comes to using win­ter tyres. This becomes par­tic­u­lar­ly clear when win­ter sets in ear­ly. In years with lit­tle snow, the dif­fer­ence between the cal­en­dar rule and the actu­al weath­er is less notice­able. In win­try road con­di­tions, how­ev­er, hav­ing the right tyres quick­ly becomes cru­cial.

Statutory minimum tread depth for car tyres

Regard­less of the sea­son, there are fur­ther require­ments regard­ing tyres. Accord­ing to the Road Traf­fic Act, the main tread depth must be at least 1.6 mil­lime­tres. This tread depth must be main­tained across the entire cir­cum­fer­ence of the tyre. The main tread refers to the wide grooves in the cen­tral part of the tread. This area cov­ers approx­i­mate­ly three-quar­ters of the tread width.

As a gen­er­al rule of thumb, tyres should have a tread depth of at least 1.6 mil­lime­tres. This fig­ure is required by law. The rec­om­mend­ed min­i­mum tread depth for win­ter tyres is 4 mil­lime­tres; for sum­mer tyres, a min­i­mum of 3 mil­lime­tres is advis­able to ensure road safe­ty. Inci­den­tal­ly, the statu­to­ry min­i­mum tread depth for motor­bikes is the same.

All-season tyres or winter tyres?

All-sea­son tyres offer a prac­ti­cal com­pro­mise for many motorists. How­ev­er, dri­ving con­di­tions vary depend­ing on the region and dri­ving pro­file. “An all-sea­son tyre is a com­pro­mise, and a com­pro­mise is no excuse,” says Alexan­der Weip­precht. The man­ag­ing direc­tor of Provi­me­dia GmbH refers in par­tic­u­lar to jour­neys over Alpine pass­es. There, an all-sea­son tyre may offer less per­for­mance reserve. Any­one who reg­u­lar­ly dri­ves in regions with harsh win­ters should there­fore take their dri­ving pro­file into account. Par­tic­u­lar­ly chal­leng­ing routes may make spe­cial­ist win­ter tyres a sen­si­ble choice.

The lat­est test of all-sea­son tyres by the TCS offers some guid­ance.

This page has been translated automatically.

Picture of Erwin Kartnaller

Erwin Kartnaller

Erwin Kartnaller has been a fixture in Swiss trade journalism covering commercial vehicles and mobility for over four decades. After 16 years working for daily newspapers and family magazines, he moved into trade media and wrote for virtually every commercial vehicle magazine published in Switzerland, with very few exceptions. For nine and a half years, he was editor-in-chief of the Swiss Commercial Vehicle Association ASTAG's magazine, where his precise language and clear stance had a lasting impact on industry communication. This was followed by positions in the automotive industry, including at Eurotax autoinformation and aboutFLEET. He also wrote specialist articles for Auto&Wirtschaft and Auto Bild Schweiz. With his platform www.ekacom.com (http://www.ekacom.com/), he continued to wield his “sharp pen” – an independent voice for clear words and pointed commentary. In his last professional role as editor-in-chief of Polyscope, he immersed himself in the world of electronics – a field that is increasingly shaping mobility. Today, after his active professional life, Erwin Kartnaller is once again devoting himself entirely to his passion on the mobility-360.ch platform: mobility in all its facets.

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