Founded: 1996
Founder: Elangperdana
Headquarters: Indonesia
Parent: Zafco
Website: https://acceleratire.com/
Accelera is a brand of tires with the mixed Indonesian-Chinese origins. As expected, they are cheap and rough, although not without quality. They are a very little-known brand in the West, so there’s not much information about them, and customers generally don’t trust when they see the name on a shelf.
Who makes Accelera tires? For a long time, Accelera has been a largely Indonesian brand under the ‘Elangperdana’ company. Afterwards, they sold these to Zafco, a mostly Thai tire supplier. This opened up a lot of opportunities for the brand, and that’s the main reason why they start appearing on in the stores even in the West.
Accelera don’t cost much, but at the same time the manufacturers claim that these tires are more high-performance models than anything. Well, you can get an average Accelera tire for about $40 or $50, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they are bound to be bad. For this cost, they are pretty good, actually.
When on road, Accelera treads behave very well in usual circumstances. The dry asphalt suited them good, and they don’t give up in reasonably wet environments. But if the rain starts pouring down in large quantities or there’s a lot of snow on the road, they are bound to suffer.
There is a slight hydroplaning issue, so you when confronted with a lot of water on the road, you need to slow down a bit and focus on controlling the car. Same goes to the snow, and especially to ice. If you’re careful, there’s no reason to dread snowfall. They perform well, but you need to pay more attention.
Contrary to what the common image is, cheap Asian tires aren’t always fast to wear off. In fact, depending on the manner of your driving, you can squeeze out 60,000 or even 100,000 km.
They aren’t particularly gentle, either. The sidewalls are thick enough to survive a lot of hits. They are also well-balanced and pretty quiet, if you must know. They are fairly comfortable, which is a very pleasant bonus.
The other problem is that you actually have to find them first to try them on. There aren’t any Zafco stores in your vicinity, most likely. The most prudent thing would be to order them online, and their service can often be disappointing. But that’s not tires’ fault.
If you want to save on tires, refuse to sacrifice safety and performance, and are willing to pay attention to the road – then the Accelera tires are going to be a good fit.