“Tire makers are on the hook to deliver something more than durability, reliability and high performance,” Brand Finance said in its study. “They need to embark on the ‘connectivity’ journey.
“A big question now is: ‘To what extent can the tire manufacturers leverage the 5G technology to create connected tires?'”
The firm said analysts expect the connected tire market to grow by up to 75% by 2030 with autonomous driving and car-sharing contributing highly to demand for connected tires. Growth in the more traditional tire industry, by contrast, is predicted to be in the 5% range by 2027.
Continental A.G. retains the No. 3 ranking despite a slight slip in value, down 2.6% to $3.32 billion, ahead of Dunlop and Goodyear at fourth and fifth.
The Dunlop brand — which is shared by Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. and used by them exclusively in agreed-upon geographic regions — was valued at $2.13 billion, up 5.7% over 2019, whereas the Goodyear brand was valued at $2.08 billion, up 6.9% over 2019.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (SRI) was listed as No. 10, with a value of $756 million, although SRI uses the Sumitomo brand on a limited basis, preferring to use Falken in areas where Goodyear has the rights to the Dunlop brand and Dunlop elsewhere.
Spokesmen from Brand Finance acknowledged that listing Sumitomo Rubber is a bit misleading, owing to the Falken/Dunlop/Sumitomo branding issues, and vowed to take SRI’s split branding situation into consideration in future rankings.
Other brands to make the company’s top 10 are:
• Pirelli, No. 6, valued at $1.48 billion, down 8.7% from 2019;
• Hankook, No. 7 valued at $1.32 billion, down 9.8%; and
• Yokohama, No. 8, valued at $873 million, up 6%.
