Hankook Tire & Technology Co., the world's seventh-largest tiremaker by sales, said Monday it has started supplying tires for Chinese electric vehicle startup Leap Motor's SUV model.
Hankook Tire has been providing the high-performance Ventus S1 Evo3 ev product to Leap Motor's C11 since the first quarter in the form of original equipment (OE) products, the company said in a statement.
To enhance its global brand image, Hankook Tire has provided its OE tire products for 320 kinds of vehicles of nearly 46 foreign carmakers, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.
Supplying OE tires to car manufacturers does not generate much revenue for tiremakers but securing big companies as clients helps improve their brand image, and can lead to boosting brand awareness and a rise in product prices down the line.
For tiremakers, it is more profitable to sell replacement equipment tires in the after-sales market.
Hankook Tire earns over 80 percent of its total revenue from abroad.
It has eight plants -- two in South Korea, one in Hungary, one in the United States, three in China and one in Indonesia -- whose combined capacity reaches 102 million tires per year.
Source: Yonhap News Agency