It very well could be that it came on-line in 2000. The copyright on the page is 2002. I just thought it was interesting on what they could do, and we always talk about protecting our tires from UV, but many forget that Ozone is also a substance that can deteriorate tires.
You can do a search on -
high level ground ozone
- and come up with a lot of information on the subject. Tires that are subjugated to high level ground ozone will suffer deterioration faster than those that are not.
I posted the article because it stimulated my pea brain. I can't really help you on the dates and I'm not calling Germany to verify
Thanks.