Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 vs Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5: After 5 years of mediocre results for Hakkapeliitta R3 in the press test arena, Nokian finally launch a new successor named Hakkapeliitta R5 in 2022 in hopes of bringing back its former glory of being the best in ice & snow. In our previous article, we have covered how Hakkapeliitta R5 fared against the de-facto leader Continental Viking Contact 7. Next we would like to bring you a special Nordic segment comparison between studless vs studded in the form of Nokian’s Hakkapeliitta 10 vs Nokian’s Hakkapeliitta R5. Both tires are produced by the Nordic specialized Nokian manufacturer which has made a name for themselves in the cold weather segment.
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from the “2022 Tyre Reviews Studless Winter Tyre Test” test. A total of 9 tires were tested this time around with a studded reference and also a middle European winter tire reference to gauge the segment differentiation.
The graph below shows the comparison between Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 vs Nokian Hakkapeliitta R5 based on the relevant performance category. The Hakkapeliitta 10 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark. Note that for the handling evaluation, lap times were used as an objective gauge to determine how well the tire performs while a subjective rating is also provided. As studded tires need a special surface in order to run summer tests, it was excluded in the current test plan. However the 2 main ice & snow performances will be evaluated in detail.
The tire size of interest is 205/55R16 which is a common tire size for Volkswagen Golf (2018) and the Toyota Corolla Altis (2018). You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle is a Volkswagen Golf.
Ice
In this particular segment, ice performance is everything. As the usage conditions are usually around -5 to -15 °C, ice is the most sought out criteria. One thing to be clear when it comes to studded vs studless comparison on ice is the temperature. Studded tires excel really well on ice at about -5 °C while studless tires operate much better at colder temperatures. As there is no recording of temperatures we could roughly guess this by looking at the test results. In ice braking, the Hakkapeliitta 10 studded tire was dominating as it managed to brake 3.48m (11 feet) earlier than studless Hakkapeliitta R5. Do note that this big difference changes rapidly depending on the temperature of the ice.
Things were similar in ice traction as Hakkapeliitta 10 managed to be 2.83 seconds faster from a speed of 5 km/h (3mph) to 20 km/h (12mph) compared to Hakkapeliitta R5. Things were totally different in ice handling as the soft compound Hakkapeliitta R5 managed to grip and glide much better compared to the studded Hakkapeliitta 10. Hakkapeliitta R5 managed a 0.83 seconds advantage per lap compared to Hakkapeliitta 10. This was also evident in subjective ice handling as Hakkapeliitta R5 was rated 5 points better than Hakkapeliitta 10. Overall, ice was split into both halves as the studless Hakkapeliitta R5 excels best in subjective ice while the studded Hakkapeliitta 10 was dominant in objective ice.
Hakkapeliitta R5 :
- -24.4% in ice braking
- -46.7% in ice traction
- +1.6% in ice handling (lap time)
- +5.6% in ice handling (subj)
Snow
The next most important item for Nordic tires is snow. Unlike in ice which both studded and studless took turns to dominate, the snow performances were pretty close. They finished the same in snow braking as both managed a 15.5m (51 feet) braking distance from a speed of 40 km/h (25mph) to 5 km/h (3 mph). The biggest margin in snow came in snow traction as Hakkapeliitta R5 was 0.09 seconds quicker to accelerate from 20 km/h (12 mph) to 5 km/h (3mph).
Snow handling was effectively the same as both tires finished the same time and being the best 2 tires in the snow handling test. Both were also effectively ranked the same subjectively with a rating of 85/100. Overall both tires were neck in neck in snow and there is no one clear winner.
Hakkapeliitta R5 :
- -0.1% in snow braking
- +1.6% in snow traction
- -0.1% in snow handling (lap time)
- 0% in snow handling (subj)
- -0.3% in snow circle
Rolling Resistance
When it comes to studless/studded tires, rolling resistance is definitely not at the highest priority as the engineer has to handle the most important winter vs summer target conflict. However with the sustainability topic being more prevalent, rolling resistance has been widely used as a competitive marketing tool as it could be easily seen in the label values.
Being a studded tire, rolling resistance is greatly hampered as the studs do create more resistance in rolling. Hakkapeliitta R5 had a lower rolling resistance value of 7.34 N/kN compared to 8.29 N/kN of Hakkapeliitta 10.
Hakkapeliitta R5 :
- +12.9% in rolling resistance
Price
Due to the additional cost of the metal studs and studding process, studded tires naturally cost much more than the studless tire. The Hakkapeliitta R5 was found to be 47 dollars more expensive than Hakkapeliitta 10.
Tire size: 205/55R16
Hakkapeliitta R5 :$169
Hakkapeliitta 10 : $216
Difference: -28% more cheaper for Hakkapeliitta R5.
Summary
Overall, both tires were neck in neck and took turns to be ahead of each other depending on the type of test. Studless Hakkapeliitta R5 had an advantage in subjective ice & rolling resistance while studded Hakkapeliitta 10 showed clear strengths in objective ice. As both tires excel at different performance criteria, there is no clear winner in this duel & it really comes down to your individual requirements. Enjoy !