Black Gold – Winter tires will be so much more expensive this year!

Surveys by the two online portals Check24 and Alzura in Germany have shown that prices are up to 21 percent higher. For Austria, the development will hardly deviate significantly from these forecasts.

Check24 calculated a price increase of almost 21 percent for the 100 best-selling winter tires via the portal. All-season tires have also become more expensive, but not at the same rate by 16 percent. An 18.9 percent increase in the retailer’s purchase prices was observed at Alzura. On average these were 83.27 euros per tire in the first days of September. A year ago that was still a good 70 euros.

The BRV tire trade association sees the corona crisis and the war in Ukraine as the main drivers of the price increase. “Until a few months ago, the tire industry still largely sourced important raw materials such as carbon black and synthetic rubber from Russia and Ukraine,” says General Manager Michael Schwämmlein. Here the manufacturers should now look for new suppliers. In addition, high oil, gas and electricity prices drove up production costs. In the course of the year, the BRV expects inflation in the low double-digit percentage range.

And in addition to the price increases for the tires themselves, according to Schwämmlein, retailers should “of course try to pass on the cost increases for their own business.” These are mainly exploding energy costs, but also rising personnel costs.

However, the BRV does not expect any problems across the board with tire availability. With special versions, “as in the past, there may be occasional delivery problems,” says Schwämmlein. However, “an alternative authorized tire can be found in the short term”. Premium manufacturers may tend to produce larger, more expensive tires when raw materials are scarce, as these have significantly higher margins than quality or budget brands and smaller tires.