2025 Q1 Euro Tire Trends
On May 8, 2025, the market data released by the European Tire and Rubber Association sent an intriguing signal to the industry. In the first quarter, the total sales volume of the European replacement tire market increased slightly by 2.5% year-on-year, with 65.145 million tires sold. Under the seemingly stable growth curve, the four tracks of passenger car tires, commercial vehicle tires, agricultural tires and motorcycle tires are playing completely different stories.
The most popular one is the passenger car tire, which sold 58.727 million tires in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 3%. Behind this craze is the real money and silver car purchase subsidies in European countries.
Germany has increased the subsidy for electric vehicles to 6,000 euros, and France has also encouraged citizens to replace environmentally friendly new cars, which directly ignited the enthusiasm for car purchases. The new car is selling well, and the subsequent demand for tire replacement will naturally rise.
In addition, with the recovery of the tourism industry, many people drive around in their private cars, and have higher requirements for the safety and comfort of tires. Products such as Michelin Primacy 5, which focus on quietness and wet grip, cannot be stocked in dealer warehouses.
However, the commercial tire market is shivering, with truck and bus tire shipments falling 4% year-on-year, with only 2.695 million sold. Europe's stringent new environmental regulations have become a "tightening curse" for logistics companies. In order to make old cars meet the standards, they can only spend money on exhaust gas transformation first, and new car purchase plans have been postponed again and again.
Energy prices remain high, and many small logistics companies are willing to replace tires when they are almost "bottomed out" in order to save costs. Now that e-commerce is booming, small trucks are mostly used for "last mile" delivery. Heavy trucks have less mileage, and tire consumption has also decreased. Lao Zhang, who runs a freight company, complained: "We used to change tires every six months, but now we only change them once a year. The cost pressure is too great."
The agricultural tire market is also not doing well, with shipments also falling by 4% to only 203,000 tires. The EU vigorously promotes green agriculture, and many small farms have reduced their planting scale.
In addition, there have been many extreme weather events in the past two years, either blizzards blocking roads or severe droughts, and tractors have been idle for longer periods of time, but tire wear has slowed down. One farmer admitted: "Unless the tread is cracked, I really don't want to change it. The cost of agricultural materials is rising too fast now."
In contrast to the first two, the motorcycle tire market is booming. 3.52 million tires were sold in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 7%. Now young people in Europe love to pursue individuality, and riding a cool motorcycle is more eye-catching than driving a car.
The limited edition models launched by Harley and Ducati were sold out as soon as they were launched. The MotoGP event toured many stations in Europe, pushing the motorcycle craze to its peak. Moreover, traffic jams in cities are getting worse and worse. Motorcycles are flexible and easy to squeeze through gaps. Many office workers use them as commuting tools, which has led to a rise in tire sales.
The ups and downs of these market data are simply the result of the combined effects of policy trends, economic environment and consumer habits. For tire companies, the most important thing now is to understand the ins and outs of each market segment and develop products that better meet demand. After all, in the fiercely competitive European market, those who cannot keep up with the changes will be eliminated.
