- G'day, Jared from Tyre Review and I'm at SEMA 2019.
I'm standing with Dwayne from Yokohama.
Dwayne, thanks for having us.
- Absolutely, glad to have you.
- Yeah, yeah.
So, Yokohama, just start off by telling us who is Yokohama,
what is Yokohama, what makes you guys tick?
- Yeah, so Yokohama the global corporation
has been around for over 100 years.
Here in the United States we just celebrated our 50th
and kind of on the motorsports side
we've been around for 40 years, so.
Kinda been doing this tyre thing for a while.
And, basically, 2019 was the year to shine
and we launched nine new products, so--
- Nine? - We can walk you through--
- Nine? - Yeah,
it's been a, whoa!
- That's a lot of launches.
- Can't wait till December, just take it off.
And then, so we can walk you through
all that product review, go down the line.
- Sure, let's go look at the X-AT first.
(upbeat music)
X-AT, it looks pretty aggressive.
What's the story behind this tyre?
- So on the X-MT here this is our extreme motoring--
- Yeah, yeah we're there.
I do it, been doing it all day.
- [Jared] There's lots of X's going on.
- It's extreme.
Yeah so, on the mud terrain basically is,
people ask for their tyres and their vehicles
to do more extreme, different things.
There's a lot of opportunity to kind of fill in the gaps
from kind of the craziest down to,
kind of the most pedestrian.
And so the X-MT really starts it off
as kind of the most extreme.
So this is for extreme rock crawling,
giving you a lot of biting edges here,
to be able to go through the sand, and the silt, the dirt,
and then making it in really aggressive sizes
where it's a 40 inch tyre, a 37,
and then in the large rim diameters as well.
- Is it the same casing as the regular MT?
- So basically, as each tyre is really optimised
for what it needs to do, that literally starts
from the ground up, if you will.
And so the casing will be different for each one,
whether it's a substantial tweak, or a minor tweak,
mainly just to keep the profile to do what it needs to do,
and then also to give it the strength,
whether it's a E load, or an F load rated tyre.
Each of that's gonna need a slightly different thing.
- So still three-ply between the two?
- Indeed.
- Yep, yep.
So I guess the other new tyre is the X-AT.
- AT, yes.
- Which I, yep, so X-AT, X-MT.
- They're just a regular old MT right here.
- That's right, the plain old boring old MT.
Actually, its' not boring, we've got a set of those
in the shop at the moment.
What's the story behind the X-AT?
- So again, to kind of fill that void,
where there's people that have an all-terrain tyre,
and then they have a mud-terrain tyre.
And basically, even the kind of, for the most extreme stuff,
that's almost a trailered vehicle
that's a non-street legal vehicle.
I mean it's pretty aggressive.
So even for the person that is offroading,
let's just say every weekend,
which is still a pretty healthy amount,
they're still driving to work Monday through Friday.
And so, where an MT might be too aggressive,
the X-AT is kind of the inbetween ground, and so they say,
hey I need it to do a little bit more aggressive,
but I can't have the kind of constant issues of the MT,
whether it's the super aggressive noise,
or just the pattern, or how it goes through the product.
So, the X-AT fills that void.
- Yeah, so you're gonna have a quieter ride,
a bit more comfortable.
- Indeed.
- I have heard that it's a three-ply casing still?
- Yes.
Yep, so basically on the X-AT, it's kind of a,
again, ground up, launched
four months ago here in the US.
And then basically, just keep going on,
and basically taking what we've learned,
and just kind of applying it to this very specific need.
- That's cool.
I've actually got a set of these on my car at the moment,
and I'm rating them, so. - Perfect.
- That's gonna be really interesting to see
how they turn out, particularly on the trail.
Should we go and have a look at anything else?
- Absolutely, we can head on down the line.
- Come and show me.
So you got the GO15.
- Yes, so this is actually,
this is kind of your traditional all-terrain.
And as we kind of go through this product line, this is,
as I mentioned, we launched nine new products.
This was launched two years ago,
so whoa, it's the old man in the bunch here.
And so the AT again, is the traditional AT.
It's a little bit less aggressive than someone else's AT,
and that's why that X-AT
fills that void really, really well.
So for someone that needs kind of the durability,
and again, 93 sizes, so a lot of coverage
from a vehicle perspective.
- So this is two-ply casing, this one?
- Yes.
Yep.
- And then, then we move into the H/T.
- Yep.
So again, there's people that say,
hey you know, my truck is really just
for moving stuff on the road,
and so a traditional H/T is very warranted
for people that just say, it's a truck,
it stays on the road.
It obviously can go slightly bits of offroad,
but doesn't need to be.
They're more focused on more the treadwear,
which is, on this is a 70,000 mileage warranty.
- In the US, I got to point that out.
- Sorry mileage, mileage.
- But it's good that you guys actually
trust your tyres well enough
that you guarantee that mileage here in the states.
- Exactly.
And that's, on aggressive roads here in the United States,
and across the whole spectrum
of hot places of Texas to cold places in the north.
So again, gives people that peace of mind
that they can just keep driving, and driving, and driving.
- Yeah, absolutely.
And then I believe we've got a brand new tyre down here,
which has just been launched in the states.
- Yes.
- So may or may not be coming to Australia,
we're not sure at this stage.
So stay tuned.
- Yes.
So as, here in the United States,
the crossover market is literally that exponential growth,
and it's just year over year, it's more and more,
where people say, I need the, some parts of a truck,
but not a full pick-up bed truck.
So the crossover market is absolutely huge,
and so this is for basically a high-end luxury vehicle,
high-end luxury crossover,
that needs all-season performance,
versus just the summer tyre.
So this comes in the aggressive fitments,
like the 20, the 21 inch, and the 22 inch.
So, again, high-end vehicles that they say hey,
I want to be able to use,
I bought this really nice truck-like vehicle,
and I want to use it year round.
So that's the tyre that can give them that performance.
- So you're looking at comfortable ride
and that sort of thing with this?
- Yes, exactly.
So basically if you bought a high-end crossover,
you bought it for reason.
It's gonna be comfortable, it's gonna be quiet.
It's gonna perform well, both from kind of a stop and start,
and from launch to lateral requests
of what a tyre's asking for.
So if you have a Range Rover, or a Porsche, or a Lexus,
you're asking for some pretty serious performance,
this is the tyre that complements that.
- So for everyone playing at home,
that's the X-CV, so that might come into Australia soon.
- One more X, we just can't get enough of those X's, yes.
Which we've-
I'm, nevermind.
- I was gonna say if we could work X into Yokohama
or something, but no.
- We're right there at the end of the alphabet,
so we just like playing in that space.
- Making friends back there. - Exactly.
- So is there anything else
we should have a look at down here?
- Yeah, come on down.
We do more than trucks.
- [Jared] Really? - [Dwayne] Yeah!
- [Jared] We had a set of your high performance tyres
in the warehouse just recently,
but tell me what else has happened around here recently.
- Yeah so, I mean just the part that isn't quite the,
seem as sexy.
But basically, all the tyres that people actually need
most day in, day out.
This is our, kind of our more consumer product line,
that's more focused on people that need
an 80,000 mile warranty.
And then just--
- We don't offer in Australia I don't think.
But again, they're happy to guarantee that here in US.
- Exactly, making sure that the product works,
and can perform and do what it needs to do.
And so basically on this side of things,
basically the Ascend GT was launched last year,
the Ascend LX launched this year.
And then on that side of it is basically, performance,
and then with more of a, performance as in speed,
and what not, versus the Ascend LX,
which is more focused on mileage.
- Yep, yep.
- In Australia, you have the Time Attack series,
which is all the Advan Livery and what not,
and is extremely popular in the United States,
excuse me, in Japan and Australia.
Here in the United States, it hasn't been as visible,
so we wanted to be able to tell that story.
So that's kind of what our booth is here,
and is because we launched
all four of these new products just this week.
- All four of these new products?
- Yes.
- So these are new products in the states
that they might be making their way to Australia,
we're not sure yet?
- That's what I've been told.
So basically from a full competition tyre,
that is out ready to race, and win on a global stage,
like at Pikes Peak.
- But that's still street legal?
- Indeed, yeah.
It's a 200 UTQG, so kind of,
within most US-based racing regulations.
And then we go all the way down to an all-season tyre.
- So that's an all-season tyre that you can still probably
go to the track to, every now and then if you wanted to,
or are you probably looking at the left over there?
- I'd probably, just on to be on the safe side,
push it back towards this direction.
Just for, that's basically gonna give you
the ability to drive in snow, and in performance vehicle.
- That's proper all-season.
- Right, right.
So here, if you're really dedicate to the track,
I would definitely spend time on the O52.
Where it's just, that's where the 10th of a second counts,
and you're out there to play to win.
- Awesome.
That's great.
Well I think we might finish up with a panning shot
of these guys over here, 'cause they're pretty incredible.
- Absolutely.
They're way better looking than I am.
(Jared laughing) So have at it.
- So these are from the Time Attack series, you were saying?
- [Dwayne] So basically we've got,
we've got some race cars from the yesteryear.
Up top, we've got, and down below
we've got some soon to be race cars,
and then some cars that competed here in 2000- what are we?
2019 Pikes Peak,
Travis Pastrana in the GT4
which raced on the O52s.
And then the Porsche Cup car
that we've been racing since 2009.
- That's awesome.
Cool.
So thanks very much for giving us the tour around, Dwayne.
- My pleasure.
- And enjoy the rest of SEMA.
- Same to you, safe travels.
- Thanks everyone.