A tire localization system for locating the position of a tire of a vehicle having five or more wheels, includes a number of tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) wheel modules of a vehicle TPMS, each wheel module being attached to each one of the wheels or a tire thereof, respectively. Each TPMS wheel module includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader. The system further includes a number of RFID tags, each RFID tag being associated with and storing wheel position information of one of the wheels, and each RFID tag being positioned externally of its associated wheel. Each of the RFID readers is arranged, upon activation, to interrogate its associated RFID tag, and the associated RFID tag is arranged, upon interrogation, to transmit its stored position information to the RFID reader for transmission by the TPMS wheel module to a central control unit. A tire localization method is also provided.