2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test

If you're planning on undertaking a massive Nordic friction and studded winter tire test, having the right facilities to conduct the test in is key. Fortunately for Test World, they own one of the best independent arctic testing facilities in the world which is why we're super excited to see this 21 tire test, covering all the key friction studless and studded winter tires on the market.

All tires are in the popular 205/55 R16, and were tested using a VW Golf. There were some interesting new tires in the test, including the first test of the studless Michelin X-Ice Snow.

Many of the premium brands included have both studless friction and studded winter tires in the test, which is why you'll see them twice in the data, so as you're going through the results looking at your favourite tire make sure you're looking at the right version of it.

Overall, the usual contenders in the winter segment came out top. Continental, who dominate the European winter tire tests, joint won the test alongside Michelin. 

The studded Continental IceContact 3 proved to have an excellent all round ability, with no huge weakness for a studded tire, and the new studded Michelin X-Ice North 4 dominated on ice, and performed well in nearly all other criteria, showing only a slight weakness during wet handling testing.

Winter specialists Nokian aren't having the best time in the European winter segment at the moment, but they'll be happy with third place for their studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9 tire, and even happier as the winning studless friction tire on test being awarded to the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3. 

One other interesting point for European readers, you'll notice some of the best tires in the dry and wet are rated as some of the worst tires overall in this test. This serves as a nice reminder that friction and studded tires are tires designed for climates that see extreme winters, which mean snow and ice on the ground for many months constantly. None of these tires are suitable for a central European winter, where dry and wet is the dominant weather, so don't try fitting them in climates like the UK.

Dry

In the dry the budget Petlas Glacier W661 narrowly beat the Michelin X-Ice North 4. Sadly there was no objective dry handling data, the subjective data can be found in the overall results below.

Wet

The Petlas also proved best during wet testing, winning wet braking and wet handling.

Snow

Colder testing reversed the fortunes of the Petlas tire, finishing at the back of the pack in all the snow and ice testing.

Continental dominated snow braking, taking first place with the studless VikingContact and second place with the studded IceContact 3

Continental again took the top two spots during snow traction testing, this time with the studded tire ahead of the studless.

Snow handling testing brought a little advantage to the studless tires, with the VikingContact again proving best, and the Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 finishing second.

Ice

Ice testing naturally brings the advantage back to studded tires, with the Michelin X-Ice North 4 matching the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 9 as the best during ice braking.

Michelin, Continental and Nokian also took the top three sports during ice traction.

Michelin rounded out the ice testing with anoher win for the X Ice North 4.

Environment

The tires were rated subjectively for noise, with seven of the tires on test finishing joint top.

Rolling resistance scores were based on the best tire (Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3) being set at zero, then other the tires ratings being how much more fuel they would use represented as a percentage.

Results