What happens with summer tyres during the winter?
                     What happens with summer 
tyres during the winter?
What happens with summer tyres during 
the winter?
• There is a reason why you need to change to winter tyres during 
the winter, if you plan to drive in winter conditions. Winter 
conditions isn’t merely snow and ice, it is also cold temperatures. 
When the temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius the 
rubber compound that is used in summer tyres will become hard 
and will lose its flexibility. When you have a soft tyre, the tyre can 
adapt to the road surface and the rubber is pressed into the small 
cavities in the surface to create a very good grip. 
What happens with summer tyres during 
the winter?
• When you then try to drive during wintertime with summer tyres, 
they will have severely reduced grip when the temperature drops 
below zero. So even if you don’t have any snow or ice present, you 
should have winter tyres on your car for better driving performance 
during the cold weather. Summer tyres also have a tread pattern 
that is optimized for dry and warm summer roads. They can handle 
wet roads as well as they have been optimized for good wet grip, but 
not for any snow or ice. They have no features to handle snow or ice. 
As good as the summer tyre is on summer roads, it is almost equally 
bad on winter roads, as they have not been designed for that.
What happens with summer tyres during 
the winter?
• So even if you choose a non-studded tyre, that is a winter tyre 
that doesn’t have metal studs, this tyre is still designed with 
winter conditions in mind. The rubber compound used in these 
tyres will not get hard even at very low temperatures and the 
tread is optimized for adding grip both on snow and ice. The tread 
pattern will provide you with both grip and traction for safe 
driving on ice, snow and even on slush. They will prevent you from 
slushplaning, where the car in a similar way as aquaplaning, will 
lose contact with the road surface and you end up sliding on a 
layer of slush. 
What happens with summer tyres during 
the winter?
• If you live in areas that don’t really have severe winter weather, 
you might be able to use all-weather tyres. If you chose a winter 
approved all-weather tyre, it will have the properties of both a 
summer and a winter tyres combined into one, so that you have a 
perfect all year round tyre. This means that you are always ready 
to drive.
• For more information on which winter tyres you should choose for 
safe winter driving, visit: https://www.nokiantyres.com/
What happens with summer 
tyres during the winter?