New EU tyre regulation

There will come very soon a new tyre regulation from the EU which requires labeling of all tyres in a similar manner as we have now at many domestic products for kitchen. Yes, it sounds strange, to have a label on a tyre like on a refrigerator. However it will show at least a part of the common tyre benchmarks, namely fuel efficiency, wet grip and noise levels.

The design of the future EU tyre label will be this one :

As seen from the pictograms, the left upper part shows fuel efficiency, the right part shows the wet grip and the bottom part shows the noise level.

If the aim here is to go greener, fine, but the only green benchmark here is fuel consumption. For example no word about green production of the tyres or something similar. If the aim is to help to make a wise buying decision, why the heck is there no dry grip indicator, as this is much more common situation. If the aim here would be to go safer, there should be a breaking distance vs. weight indicator or something similar.

Of course for every driver the tyre tests should remain the main source of data before buying a new set of tyres. This label is only a fast and uncomplete help for quick orientation.

The timing of this rule is, that after 1.11.2012 every tyre for sale within the EU should have this kind of sticker.