The Tyre Label Explained: Fuel, Wet Grip and Noise

Every new car tyre comes with a label that rates it on three things: how much fuel it uses, how well it grips in the wet, and how much noise it makes. Modelled on the familiar energy labels seen on white goods, it is designed to make tyres easier to compare at the point of sale.

The three ratings

A tyre label always covers the same three measures:

• Fuel efficiency: based on the tyre's rolling resistance, the energy it takes to keep the tyre rolling. Lower rolling resistance means less fuel used.
• Wet grip: how well the tyre brakes on a wet road, measured as straight-line wet braking distance. This is the key safety rating.
• External noise: the rolling noise the tyre makes on the outside of the car, which affects noise around busy roads rather than what the driver hears.

Each rating has its own detailed guide, covering wet braking and grip, fuel efficiency and external noise in turn. Alongside them, the label shows the supplier, the tyre size and class, and on newer labels may carry a snow or ice icon and a QR code.

What changed in 2021

On 1 May 2021 the European tyre label was overhauled, and the differences are worth knowing because both old and new styles are still encountered:

• Fuel efficiency and wet grip were rescaled from a seven-grade A to G scale down to a five-grade A to E scale, dropping the old, largely unused lower grades
• Noise changed from three black sound-wave bars to a single A, B or C class (the old three-wave tyre became class C)
• New icons were added: a 3PMSF snowflake for tyres certified for severe snow, and an ice grip symbol for tyres tested on ice
• A QR code was added, linking to the EU's EPREL product database for fuller information

The snow and ice icons reflect the same standards as the markings on the tyre itself, and how the severe-snow snowflake is earned is covered separately.

Great Britain and the EU: a difference worth knowing

There is a post-Brexit subtlety that many guides gloss over. The new 2021 label applies in the EU and Northern Ireland. Great Britain legally retained the older A to G scheme.

In practice, though, the gap is small: tyres manufactured since May 2021 physically carry the new A to E label, the tyre industry made the new values available across the whole UK. So a buyer in Great Britain will usually see the new label anyway. The safest habit is simply to read the actual grades and figures shown rather than assume which scale is in use, which is easy to do when comparing a set to buy: the real grades are read straight off the label, as they appear beside each tyre in the listings on tyre-selling sites like Tyres.co.uk.

What the label does not tell you

The label is a useful comparison, but a narrow one. It rates only fuel efficiency, wet braking and external noise. It says nothing about dry grip, cornering, aquaplaning resistance, high-speed stability, cabin noise or how long the tread lasts. A tyre can score well on the label and still differ markedly from a rival on the road, which is why independent tyre tests remain valuable alongside it.

It is also worth noting that some tyres are exempt, including retreads, racing tyres, off-road tyres, temporary spares and tyres for vehicles first registered before October 1990.

From the workshop: the label is a good first filter, especially the wet grip grade, but it is not the whole story. We have fitted tyres a grade apart on paper that felt very different in the real world, so we treat it as one input alongside proper reviews, not the final word.

Sources and accuracy. The label format, the 2021 changes and the Great Britain versus EU position here reflect the labelling regulations in force at the time of writing, which can change. For a specific tyre, the grades shown on its own label are what apply. If anything here looks wrong, get in touch and we will check it and put it right.