Snow tires, studless friction tires, extreme winter tires, nordic winter tires. This category of tire goes by many names, and they have one design goal, to be the very best on snow and ice for harsh winter climates, where studded tires aren't appropriate, or for people who don't want studs.

To find out which is the best, Tire Reviews has taken 7 of the most popular tires available to both the North American and Nordic markets, and will be putting them through a full range of tests, including ice, snow, wet and dry testing to find out which is best at what. Also, to help you understand where these tires fit in the market, I'm also including the very best of the central european and studded winter tires, the Continental WinterContact TS870 and the studded Nokian Happapelliita 10.

Once again the German publication Auto Bild have tested more winter tires than anyone else in 2022! This years Auto Bild Winter Tire Test starts with 56 winter tires in 215/55 R17 which are all put through a wet braking test, with the top 30 also placed in a snow braking test, then the top 20 will be carried over to the full test.

For 2022, the excellent German test organisation ADAC have tested 15 winter tires in 185/65 R15 and 15 crossover SUV winter tires in 215/60 R16.

The results below are for the 185/65 R15 test, where we have no real surprises in the overall results. 

For 2022, the excellent German test organisation ADAC have tested 15 crossover SUV winter tires in 215/60 R16 and 15 winter tires in 185/65 R15.

The results below are for the 215/60 R16 test, where we have a few interesting quirks in the overall results. 

For this year's Tire Reviews winter tire test, we've got nine sets of the most popular winter tires, half of which are brand new tires for this year!

As always I'll be testing in the snow, wet and dry, and looking at rolling resistance, noise and comfort, to ensure you get the best overview of all the new winter tires!

The 2022 Auto Zeitung performance winter tire test has tested eight popular winter tires in 225/45 R17.

Continental, Bridgestone and Michelin all perform well, with the Continental WinterContact TS870 taking another win in 2022 winter tire tests thanks to a well balanced performance in all conditions, the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 performing extremely well in the dry and wet, and the Michelin Alpin 6 offering good grip in all conditions.

The first winter tire test for 2022 is here, and it's the Auto Motor Und Sport UHP winter tire test! This year AMS tested eight patterns in 245/45 R19 using an Audi A6 test vehicle.

There's almost nothing surprising about this test, it's nice when a test makes sense. At the front we have the Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 and Continental WinterContact TS870P (two of Tire Reviews favorite UHP Winter tires), with the wet masters Vredestein and Bridgestone following them up in third and fourth places overall.

We're a little late posting this so there won't be much commentary, but hopefully someone will find it useful in 2022! In 2021, Moottori performed an excellent studded tire test, and included 8 of the best studded winter tires, including the new Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 which goes on to win the test, with the Michelin X-Ice North 4 also performing really well. 

The 2021 Auto Bild Sportscars winter tire test has tested twelve of the best winter tires in 245/40 R18 size using a Mercedes C Class, AND have included a summer and all season tire as reference.

This is exceptionally useful for those of us wondering whether to fit winter or all season tires for the bigger while size, and for a change Auto Bild named the all season tire used, it's the Vredestein Quatrac Pro. 

There are however some drawbacks to the single reference tire. The Quatrac Pro is an older patter now, and certainly not the best all season tire on the market anymore. This means while it was good in the dry, it didn't beat all the winter tires as you'd expect (the Michelin CrossClimate 2 certainly would have), it struggled in the wet, and if you'd expected it to come last in a group of winter tires in the snow tests, you're also in for a surprise.

For the 2021 Auto Express winter tire test, Auto Express tested eight 225/45 R17 winter tires using a VW Golf.

As usual we'll keep commentary to a minimum, instead encouraging you to head over to the Auto Express website to check out the full test.

The tires included were very similar to the 2020 Auto Express winter tire test, with Bridgestone winning the test again, with the new Continental second.

If you live in a part of the world that sees an extreme winter such as the Northern USA, Canada, and the Northern parts of Europe, you'll know that regular central European winter tires just don't cut it. 

Winters which see snow on the roads for many months and lots of ice need extreme winter tires, and there are two types to choose from. The original is the studded winter tire, a tire which has studs (pieces of metal) inserted into the soft winter compound allowing the tire to really bite into the snow and ice below. 

Sadly, as great as studs are, they're damaging to the roads which is why tire companies invented a category of winter tire called studless friction winter tires. While these don't have studs, they do have a vastly improved ability on snow and ice when compared to a "normal" winter tire, and with advances in compounding technology they are quickly becoming an excellent alternative for all but the most extreme climates.

The 2021 Auto Bild winter tire test started its life as a fifty tire wet and snow braking test, with the best performing twenty tires proceeding to this test. This means the twenty tires in this test are some of the best winter tires for 2021 on the market!

Additionally Auto Bild have included the usual reference summer tire, but also a budget winter tire. It wasn't clear from the article how this tire was chosen, but I imagine it was one of the worst tires from the fifty tire braking test intended to highlight just how bad cheap tires can be. The results confirm the theory, with the cheap winter tire performing well below average in nearly all tests.

The results, as always, were close at the top, with the new Continental WinterContact TS870 narrowly beating the Michelin Alpin 6. The new German tire had a very consistent test, performing well in nearly all categories, and having the best wear on test!

The 2021 Auto Motor und Sport winter tire test tested ten popular central European winter tires in 195/55 R16. This size is used for vehicles such as the Audi A1, Dacia Sandero, Ford Fiesta, Mazda 2, Peugeot 208 and many more.

The Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 took another convincing test win, proving to be excellent in the wet and dry while still having reasonable snow performance. 

ADAC tire tests are some of the most influential in the world, and for the 2021 winter season ADAC have chosen to test eighteen 225/50 R17 tires and sixteen 195/65 R15 winter tires, across two tests. This article covers the 17" test, to see the 15" test please click here.

ADAC tire tests are some of the most influential in the world, and for the 2021 winter season ADAC have chosen to test eighteen 225/50 R17 tires and sixteen 195/65 R15 winter tires, across two tests. This article covers the 15" test, to see the 17" test please click here.

It's the start of the 2021 all season and winter tire test season, and what better way to start than the massive Auto Bild winter tire shootout.

This year Auto Bild have tested FIFTY 205/55 R16 winter tires in wet braking, then tested the best thirty five in snow braking. With the wet and snow braking distances combined, the top twenty tires, from Bridgestone to Nokian, will feature in the full Auto Bild winter tire test out in a few weeks.

In this tire test we take nine of the best performance winter tires in the popular 225/40 R18 size and test them in the dry, wet and of course snow to see what the best winter tire is for the 2021/22 autumn and winter.

All season VS winter tires is a hotly discussed topic, and while we've done our own test at various temperatures, it sadly didn't include any ice testing, or things like wet handling and rolling resistance testing.

Fortunately, our friends at Vi Bilagare once again have us covered. During their Nordic winter testing in 2020, the magazine included an all season and "european" winter tire alongside their usual selection of Nordic friction and studded winter tires.

As the all-season and European winter tire were being tested from a Nordic perspective, they had a significant testing on ice, which is a rarity for an all-season tire.

The results... well, I’m sure you can guess how each of the four tire types performed on each surface, but it's really cool to see all this data from one source.

Sadly there are very few professional tire tests conducted in North America, however the magazine Consumer Reports does an excellent job of educating the market with a number of huge tire tests every year.

While the public data is limited, you have to be a member to see the full results, we thought it would be important to database the information we have to help our American audience pick the right winter tire.

The 2020 Consumer Reports Winter Tire Test has tested seventeen of the best winter tires on the market in the popular 215/60 R16 size.

For their second winter test of 2020, the excellent Vi Bilagare have tested eight Nordic friction (studless) winter tires.

As with the studded version, Vi Bilagare have performed a thorough test covering dry, wet, snow and ice, and should be considered one of the benchmarks for extreme winter testing in Europe. 

This test is particularly interesting as it has the new Michelin X-Ice Snow, Bridgestone Blizzak Ice, Pirelli Ice Zero FR and Nexen Winguard Ice Plus WH43 placed up against the established Nordic winter tires from Continental, Goodyear and Nokian.