The market for tyres for 4x4 vehicles in the UK has continued to show rapid growth in recent years.

Figures from ERMC (Europool) suggest that the 4x4 replacement market stood at 1.5 million units in 2006. This represents a 9.5% increase on 2005, which itself had increased 13.5% on 2004 figures.

In reality, however, the market is probably considerably larger than this as the Europool figures do not include tyres made outside Europe (i.e. US manufactured 4x4 tyres).

The 4x4 market can be usefully split into three application sectors - road, all-terrain and mud terrain. As might be expected, the on-road sector is by far the largest of these sectors and has grown considerably over the years. However, with government action on gas-guzzling vehicles, we may expect this sector to stabilise in the future.

The off road and mud terrain sector accounts for around 200,000 tyres per annum and is also growing. Other key market trends include: