Sailun brought Nordic trade and media guests to Muonio, Finland, in March for a hands-on test of its latest winter tyre range. The Polar Drive 2026 event put the new Alpine Evo2, Arctic 2 and Ice Blazer Spike through real-world snow, slush, ice and wet-road conditions, as the brand looked to build confidence in its winter portfolio across the region.
Held around 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Muonio, the event used the kind of mixed conditions that define late winter driving in the Nordics. Guests drove on snow-covered roads, wet sections, loose fresh snow, slush and crushed ice, while a purpose-built handling course on the frozen Jerisjoki river added braking, acceleration and drift exercises to the programme. The location itself is widely recognised for its Arctic setting and clean natural environment, which gave Sailun a strong backdrop for both product testing and its wider sustainability messaging.
Around 120 attendees took part over two weeks, including original equipment representatives, retail partners, journalists and customers from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and the Baltic states. Temperatures ranging from -20°C to +5°C created a broad operating window for winter performance, letting participants assess grip, braking, comfort and refinement in changing road conditions.
The line-up centred on three products aimed at demanding winter use. The Alpine Evo2 was positioned as Sailun’s performance-focused winter tyre, designed to balance control on ice and snow with wet-road braking, mileage and fuel efficiency. The Arctic 2, a studless Nordic winter tyre, was presented as a colder-climate product built to stay flexible at very low temperatures while also maintaining usable wet performance in milder conditions. The Ice Blazer Spike completed the range as the studded option, developed for the most severe winter environments and engineered to accept up to 236 studs per tyre.
Sailun also used a mixed vehicle fleet, including the Audi A3, Audi A6 e-tron and Audi Q6 e-tron, to show how the tyres behave across combustion and electric platforms. That mattered because low noise, rolling efficiency and stable winter handling now matter as much to EV users as outright grip.
The Arctic 2 and Ice Blazer Spike both carry the EU Ice Grip symbol, which the European Commission says is used to identify tyres suitable for use in extreme icy conditions under the updated tyre labelling framework. That gives dealers and distributors a clearer compliance and positioning reference when discussing products intended for severe Nordic winters.
For Sailun, the event also underlined a wider European push in seasonal and market-specific products. Tyre News recently covered Sailun’s winter product demonstration in the Italian Alps, where the company put partners into live snow-and-ice conditions near Milan, and earlier reporting also highlighted how Sailun has been tying product development more closely to sustainability and energy management in manufacturing.
Harry Wang, General Manager of Sailun Group Europe, said the event gave the company a way to show “the strengths of our winter tyres” while also collecting feedback from professionals working with tyres every day. That emphasis on direct trade input is significant. Winter tyre buyers in Nordic markets tend to place high value on proven real-world behaviour, not just brochure claims, especially where products must perform across snow, wet roads and variable shoulder-season temperatures.
The wider programme blended technical workshops with brand presentations and informal access to management, alongside local hospitality and outdoor activities. That made Polar Drive 2026 as much a relationship exercise as a product test. In practice, events like this help suppliers move beyond specification sheets and give retail and OE audiences first-hand experience of how new tyres behave in the conditions they are built for.
Tagged with: Sailun, Sailun Polar Drive 2026, winter tyres, Nordic winter tyres, studless winter tyre, studded tyre, EV-ready tyres, Ice Grip symbol, Alpine Evo2, Arctic 2, Ice Blazer Spike, Muonio Finland
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