Tires produced for Finnish conditions do not do well in the wet-weather fuel economy testing used by the EU to determine a product’s effect on the environment.
The tires that do reduce fuel consumption in wet weather are not very effective in the ice and snow common further north, according to the Ministry of Transport’s Senior Engineer, Juha Valtonen. He believes that Finnish consumers could be misled into purchasing the wrong winter tires if the current sticker plan is implemented unchanged.
Finland is lobbying the other Nordic countries and the EU to try and get an icy conditions label in place of or alongside the one relating to wet weather conditions.