Research: The automotive lighting report
Date published: Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Description
Automotive lighting was a relatively stable area of technology for many years with only the occasional advance such as the development of halogen bulbs and more complex headlamp reflectors. However, during the 1990s, high-intensity discharge (HID) xenon headlamps significantly increased the power of forward lighting and by the turn of the century light-emitting diode (LED) technology began to make rapid inroads into the automotive lighting segment.
Alongside these new light source technologies, the quest for improved road safety has seen the development of ‘intelligent’ adaptive technologies with forward lighting now able to dynamically illuminate more of the road ahead more of the time and rear lighting able to adapt to the external conditions to better inform following drivers.
A well as concerns to improve road safety, the market for new automotive lighting technologies is also being stimulated by the quest for improved energy efficiency and the opportunities that are being realised from increased design freedom.
Against these factors, the main barrier to market penetration is, as ever, cost. Unusually, the highly regulated nature of the sector has also occasionally presented barriers to the implementation of new lighting technologies, such as daytime running lights (DRL).
The automotive lighting sector is unusual in that it is characterised by a high degree of global integration and a high level of cooperation among its major and minor participants, largely through mergers, joint ventures and participation in regular conferences and symposia. As a consequence, almost all automotive lighting suppliers produce products that incorporate all the new technologies, including LED headlamps, adaptive forward lighting (AFL) systems and advanced rear lighting systems.
Table of contents:
Executive summary
Introduction
Market drivers
Safety
Design opportunities
Regulations
Energy efficiency
Market barriers
Cost
Technology development
Light source technology
Halogen
Neon
High-intensity discharge xenon
Light-emitting diodes
Optics technology
Lens optics
Reflector optics
Projector optics
Distributed Lighting Systems
Curve adaptive lighting systems
Adaptive forward lighting systems
Other intelligent lighting
Exterior automotive lighting
Headlamps
Daytime running lamps
Position lamps
Front position lamps
Rear position lamps
Fog lamps
Front fog lamps
Rear fog lamps
Side-marker lamps
Reversing lamps
Rear combination lamps
Centre high-mounted brake lamp
Progressive brake lamp warning systems
Licence plate lamps
Infrared night vision enhancement
Interior automotive lighting
Ingress/egress lighting
Instrument panel and switch lighting
Ambient lighting
Colour
Intelligent interior lighting
Head-up display
Market dynamics and forecasts
CAL
Ballasts
CHMBL
DRL
HID xenon
LED
Night vision systems
Supplier profiles
Automotive Lighting
Gentex
Hella
Ichikoh
Koito
Osram
Philips
Stanley Electric
Valeo
Visteon
