As part of the company’s North American expansion, Apollo Tyres has entered the commercial truck tire market.

The lineup includes a full range of regional, super-regional, coach/urban and mixed-use applications with fitments for rims ranging from 17.5 inches to 24.5 inches. Thirteen SKUs are planned for this year, which will be expanded to 23 SKUs by second half of 2022. A total of 45 SKUs covering 90% of the marketplace will be launched by 2024, Apollo officials said in a press release.

While the name will be new in the U.S. and Canada, the company itself is not.

The launch the commercial vehicle segment — a culmination of a five-year research and development process — follows the launch of a passenger vehicle tire line in the U.S. and Canada last fall.

Before the launch, the tires were put into test fleet service with a U.S. waste-removal/haulage operation to benchmark against Tier I competition across multiple retread cycles under punishing daily use.

The results demonstrated that the tires “easily meet or exceed the typical service requirements of the North American fleet customer while delivering outstanding value in terms of total ownership cost across the tire’s lifespan,” Apollo officials said.

“We come to market positioned to make an immediate impact by offering a Tier I value proposition at a more attractive price,” said Abhishek Bisht, Apollo’s assistant vice president of Americas.

The tires will be produced in company’s manufacturing facilities in Hungary and Chennai, India, which boast the capacity and technical expertise needed to ensure a steady supply of tires to this market, Apollo officials said.

Apollo will not sell directly to fleets, but rather rely on a network of commercial dealers.