Nokian Tyres celebrates 40 years of Ivalo test centre
Nokian Tyres is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Ivalo test centrr this year. The centre is the largest and most diverse winter tyre testing environment in the world, and the company tests thousands tyres there every year.
Also known as ‘White Hell’, Nokian Tyres says the facility in Finnish Lapland has been the epicentre of its quest to lead the world in winter driving safety since it opened in 1986.
Tyre tests are an integral part of Nokian Tyres’ tyre development process, and the inventor of the winter tyre tests these products on the facility’s 20-plus tracks from November to April. Nokian Tyres maintains more than 40km of test tracks at White Hell, including a 700-metre-long ice hall, frozen lakes, rural roads and courses curated to test every aspect of a tyre’s performance in snow and ice.
“The Ivalo test centre is at the core of our expertise – the place where our practical knowledge of extreme winter conditions originates and evolves,” said Nokian Tyres president and CEO Paolo Pompei. “For forty years, Ivalo has been the proving ground for many pioneering innovations, and it will continue to play a key role in our research, development and testing processes.”
Nokian Tyres says it tests approximately 5,000 passenger and heavy tyres from across its global portfolio each year in Ivalo. The facility is located approximately 235km (150 miles) north of the Arctic Circle and covers more than 700 hectares (1,700 acres).
“There was just a frozen lake when White Hell opened in 1986,” says Nokian Tyres Ivalo test facility manager, Matti Suuripää. “A couple guys from the testing department came here with a trailer full of tires and made a track or two on the ice. There wasn’t a facility, there were just winter conditions.”
Nokian Tyres has built its leading position in winter driving since 1934, when the company developed the world’s first winter tyre. Two years later, the global tyremaker introduced the first Hakkapeliitta branded winter tyre and celebrates the range’s 90th birthday this year.
Its current Hakkapeliitta winter passenger car tyres include the studded Hakkapeliitta 10 and Hakkapeliitta LT3 and non-studded Hakkapeliitta R5 as well as products for vans and RVs.
Nokian Tyres is represented in Ireland by Mileage Tyres, who will be exhibiting at the 2026 Auto Trade EXPO, which takes place alongside the CV Workshop EXPO from 10th -11th October at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin.