Winter Tyres Sweden: Rules, Dates, and Foreign Cars

Yes, but only sometimes. Winter tyres Sweden law covers cars from 1 December to 31 March, but only when winter road conditions actually exist. The tyres must be winter tyres or an accepted equivalent. Skip them on a day the rule applies and gets checked, and the fine is 2,000 kr on the spot. That applies to a Swedish plate or a foreign one.

That surprises most visitors. The law never names foreign vehicles, yet Swedish police state plainly that the rule covers them anyway. If your route runs through Stockholm or Gothenburg, plan for the congestion tax and bridge charges you will meet on the way too, since both catch a foreign plate the same way.

Sweden pairs a weather-triggered car rule with a calendar-only lorry rule, part of the mixed group of European regimes. See our guide to winter tyre rules across Europe if you are driving through more than one country.

Key Takeaways

• Cars need winter tyres or equivalent equipment from 1 December to 31 March, only when vinterväglag (winter road conditions) actually prevail. Trafikförordning 4 kap. 18a paragraph, verified 2026-09-11.
• Heavy lorries and buses run a longer, unconditional window: 10 November to 10 April, every day, regardless of weather.
• Since 1 December 2024, plain M+S tyres no longer qualify on light vehicles. The tyre must carry 3PMSF, POR, or be studded.
• The statute never names foreign vehicles, but polisen.se states directly that the rule applies to them on any journey into or out of Sweden.
• A missing winter tyre is a flat 2,000 kr fine, and the driver and owner can each be fined separately for the same stop.

Cars: When the Winter Tyre Duty Actually Switches On

The car rule is not a pure calendar rule, and that is the detail most guides miss. Trafikförordning 4 kap. 18a paragraph sets the window at 1 December to 31 March, but the duty only bites “när vinterväglag råder”: only when winter road conditions actually prevail. The police define that trigger widely: snow, ice, slush, or frost anywhere on the road surface, shoulder included. A dry road in January is not automatically a violation. A frosty verge on the same road is.

The duty covers personbil klass I and klass II, a car converted from a tractor, and light lorries and light buses up to 3,500 kg. It also covers any trailer towed by one of these. That catches caravan owners out: the trailer needs winter tyres too.

One narrow exemption exists: a vehicle registered as 30 years old or older in Sweden’s own vehicle register, under 18c paragraph. It cannot help a foreign classic car, as the foreign vehicles section below explains.

Lorries, Buses, and Trailers: A Longer Window With No Weather Test

Heavy vehicles follow a different rule, and treating the two as one regime is the most common mistake here.

Vehicle group	Winter tyre window	Weather condition
Cars, light lorries, light buses, and their trailers	1 December to 31 March	Only when vinterväglag (winter road conditions) prevails
Heavy lorries, heavy buses, and their trailers	10 November to 10 April	None. The calendar alone triggers the duty

18b paragraph carries no weather test at all. The window opens six weeks earlier than the car window and closes ten days later, running every day inside it, dry roads included.

A related rule, 18e paragraph, covers a two-axle heavy lorry with one driven axle pulling trailers in the same window. One of two tests must be met: 25 percent of the combination’s weight must sit on the driven axle, or the trailers’ combined weight must not exceed the lorry’s own by more than one and a half times.

The Tyre Markings and Tread Depth the Law Actually Names

Since 1 December 2024, a non-studded winter tyre on a light vehicle up to 3,500 kg must carry one of three qualifying marks: the 3PMSF alpine symbol, the POR mark (Professional Off Road), or a stud. Plain M+S alone no longer qualifies (TSFS 2009:19 3 paragraph, amended by TSFS 2025:68). POR is easy to miss: many assume 3PMSF is the only accepted mark, but POR qualifies too.

Tread depth runs on two separate scales.

Rule	Minimum tread	When it applies
General floor, any tyre, any season	1.6 mm across the central 75 percent of tread width	All year, every vehicle class
Winter window, light vehicles	3 mm (5 mm for personbil klass II over 3,500 kg)	1 December to 31 March, when vinterväglag prevails
Winter window, heavy lorries and buses	5 mm	10 November to 10 April, unconditional

That third row is a separate, new provision: TSFS 2009:19 5a paragraph, in force since 1 November 2025. It shares the 5 mm figure but runs on the unconditional heavy vehicle calendar, not the weather trigger. A short spare wheel exception applies to both minima.

Snow Chains and Studded Tyres

Sweden has no duty to carry or fit snow chains. A 2025 proposal to require heavy vehicles to carry chains was explicitly not adopted. Chains fitted over summer tyres count as equivalent equipment, an alternative to winter tyres, though that rests on general guidance rather than a hard statutory rule.

Studded tyres: a wider window than the tyre duty itself

Studded tyres are permitted from 1 October to 15 April, banned outside it unless winter conditions genuinely exist or are expected. No speed cap applies. Protrusion limits vary by tyre class.

Tyre class	Maximum protrusion in use	Maximum protrusion, new tyre
C1 and C2 (cars, light vans)	2.0 mm	1.2 mm
C3 (heavier commercial tyres)	2.5 mm	1.5 mm

A tyre may carry no more than 50 studs per metre of rolling circumference. Emergency vehicles and their trailers are exempt from the seasonal ban.

Stockholm bans studs on three named streets

Stockholm bans studded tyres, for air quality rather than safety, on Hornsgatan, all of Fleminggatan, and the Kungsgatan stretch between Sveavägen and Birger Jarlsgatan. Living nearby is explicitly not grounds for exemption. An expansion covering Sveavägen, Birger Jarlsgatan, Vasagatan, and Torsgatan starts 1 October 2027.

Foreign-Registered Vehicles: Does the Law Reach You?

This is the question most foreign drivers search for, and Sweden’s answer is direct once you look past the statute. Trafikförordning 4 kap. never mentions foreign vehicles by name; the duty is written purely by vehicle class. That silence is not an opening: the Swedish police state plainly that the winter tyre rules also cover foreign vehicles on journeys to and from abroad.

That makes it a two-sided rule:

• The duty itself binds a foreign car exactly as it binds a Swedish one, written by vehicle class with no registration-country limb.
• The 30-year exemption in 18c paragraph cannot help a foreign classic, because it depends on the Swedish vehicle register specifically.

Do not assume a well-maintained older foreign car is excused. Enforcement against a non-resident is also a lighter layer. A parliamentary motion has called for an investigation into how a non-compliant foreign vehicle could be stopped. That suggests no dedicated mechanism exists yet.

If your trip continues past Sweden, check each neighbour separately: Norway, Finland, and Denmark each set their own window and stud rule. Our speed limit in Sweden guide covers the 70 km/h base limit outside built up areas.

Fines: What Happens If You Are Stopped

Sweden enforces these rules with a fixed penalty catalogue (penningböter), not a court-set range.

Violation	Fine	Basis
No winter tyres or equivalent, light vehicle	2,000 kr	Bilaga 1A, entry 12.1
No winter tyres or equivalent, heavy vehicle	2,000 kr	Bilaga 1A, entry 12.2
Axle load or traction rule broken (18e paragraph)	3,000 kr	Bilaga 1A, entry 11.8
Tread depth below the winter minimum	1,200 kr	Bilaga 1B, section 3.1
Damaged tyre (hole, cut, or exposed carcass)	3,000 kr	Bilaga 1B, section 3.2
Studded tyres used out of season	500 kr	Bilaga 1B, section 3.3
Studded and non-studded tyres mixed on one vehicle	1,000 kr	Bilaga 1B, section 3.4
Driving a studded-tyre car on a Stockholm ban street	1,000 kr	polisen.se

Two figures look alike but differ: 500 kr is for running studs outside the national window, and 1,000 kr is for driving on a Stockholm ban street, in season or not.

A single stop can, in principle, fine the driver and the owner separately for the same missing tyres. For a rental or company car, the fine can land on whoever is named as responsible, not only the person driving.

Traps: What Other Sites Get Wrong About Winter Tyres in Sweden

• Treating the car rule and the lorry rule as one regime. The car duty is weather-conditional, 1 December to 31 March. The heavy vehicle duty is unconditional, 10 November to 10 April. One sentence covering “Sweden’s law” is wrong for one class or the other.
• Naming 3PMSF as the only accepted marking. POR qualifies too, since the same 1 December 2024 reform.
• Repeating a build date cutoff for old tyres. A common claim says studless tyres made before 1 June 2019 had to be replaced by 30 November 2024. That rule does not exist; the real text concerns M+S tyres specially developed for winter driving, no manufacture date attached.
• Quoting one stud protrusion figure for every tyre. 2.0 mm applies to C1 and C2 tyres. Heavier C3 tyres get 2.5 mm.

The Short Version

Sweden’s winter tyre law is weather-triggered for cars and calendar-only for lorries and buses. Cars need winter tyres from 1 December to 31 March, only when winter conditions actually exist. Heavy vehicles need them every day from 10 November to 10 April. Marking rules changed on 1 December 2024: plain M+S no longer counts, and the tyre must carry 3PMSF, POR, or be studded.

None of this is written with foreign plates in mind, yet Swedish police confirm it applies to them anyway. If Sweden is one stop on a longer drive, check our Sweden page for the congestion tax and bridge charges along the way, then check each neighbour’s rule before the next border.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Riksdagen: Trafikförordning (1998:1276)
• Transportstyrelsen: TSFS regulations database
• Polisen: winter and summer tyre rules
• Trafik Stockholm: studded tyre rules
• Regeringen: winter tyre requirements for heavy vehicles