LED car lighting enters the rapid development channel

Industry insiders predict that the global LED automotive lighting market will have a compound growth rate of approximately 9% in 2014-2018, and the global LED automotive lighting market will reach US$2.5 billion in 2018. This has to be said to be good news for LED companies with increased competition and overall thinning profits. Therefore, there will be more LED companies to join this segment to work harder.

LED automotive lighting products generally include two major parts, LED lighting and LED lighting outside the car. The interior lighting includes instrument panel lights, reading lights, etc. The exterior lighting mainly includes car headlights, turn signals, brake lights, and travel lights.

It is reported that at this stage, the application threshold of LED automotive lighting is still very high. In the world, LED lights are basically applied to the high-end market, such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Ford and other high-end cars have used LED lights. The manufacturers that supply LED lights to European high-end car manufacturers are basically foreign companies. This market is basically monopolized by foreign countries. It is very difficult for domestic LED companies to enter into their original light supply chain. LED companies in Taiwan and mainland China More is to compete for the aftermarket maintenance of lights.

In spite of this, most of the industry is still optimistic about the future prospects of LED automotive lighting. Its profit is higher than that of other application products. It is reported that the average gross profit of LED vehicle lighting is above 30%, and the automotive lighting market has maintained a certain rate of growth.

According to industry insiders, the global LED automotive lighting market will have a compound growth rate of approximately 9% in 2014-2018. In 2018, the global LED automotive lighting market will reach US$2.5 billion. This has to be said to be good news for LED companies with increased competition and overall thinning profits. Therefore, there will be more LED companies to join this segment to work harder.

LED lights outstanding performance

With the rapid development of society, people's living standards have improved relatively. Various types of automobiles have gradually become an indispensable tool for people's daily lives. Having a limousine is one of the pursuits of many people. The configuration of a car largely represents the quality and grade of the car. The headlights are like the "eyes" of a car. The quality of a car lamp not only affects the appearance of a car, but also affects the car's appearance. quality.

Today's mainstream lighting is mainly three types of lamps, halogen lamps, xenon lamps and LED lamps.

The first type of halogen lamp is a new-generation incandescent lamp, which is a tungsten lamp internally filled with a halogen element such as bromine iodine or a halide. As early as 1960, it began to be used in cars, which are mainly used for car headlights. Halogen lamps are widely used in automobiles mainly because of its low cost. However, its brightness is lower than the same power of xenon lamp and LED lamp, the light output efficiency is low, and the irradiation distance is short.

The second type of xenon lamp, English abbreviation HID, is a kind of gas discharge lamp, which needs to be used together with the ballast. It has been applied to automobiles since the 1990s, and its light intensity is three times higher than that of ordinary halogen bulbs, and its energy consumption is only two-thirds that of halogen lamps. It has a wider exposure range than halogen lamps and emits almost the same light color and daylight, providing a good visual comfort. However, the response speed of the lights is still not as good as LED lights.

The third type of LED light was only applied to the headlights in 1985. Compared with the first two types of headlights, it is even more advanced in terms of performance, although it is later in development time. As we all know, LED energy saving and environmental protection, energy consumption is only 1/20 of halogen lamps. In addition, it has a long life. In terms of service life, the halogen lamp is generally 600 hours, the xenon lamp is generally 3000 hours, and the LED lamp can be up to 30,000 hours. And the reaction speed is fast and it only takes a few microseconds to light up, improving the safety factor of driving.

In addition, the LED light components are small, which can bring more space for the lamp design. Its environmental adaptability is also good, unlike the xenon lamp that needs to be used in conjunction with a ballast, and it is resistant to shock and shock. It is also superior to xenon lamps in terms of color rendering, and it is closer to sunlight and has a wider exposure range.

According to Zheng Minhui, deputy general manager of Taiwan Hongkai Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., the number of LED lights used in a car is between 200 and 500.

As early as the 90s of last century, in the high-end car manufacturing, LED lamps have replaced the xenon lamp as the trend of high-end automotive lamps.

Currently in the high-end automotive lighting market, such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, etc. have introduced new cars with a variety of LED lights to attract consumers.

Access to the original automotive lighting supply chain threshold high

It is reported that LED automotive lighting products mainly include two parts, interior lighting and exterior lighting. In-vehicle lighting includes indicator lighting for dashboards, in-car navigation systems, radios, reading lights, etc. Currently, 100% of LED lighting has been used in interior lighting. The exterior lighting mainly includes car headlights, turn signals, brake lights, and travel lights.

Among them, car headlights and rolling cars are considered to be the fastest growing two types of lighting in all automotive lighting products.

It is understood that for a long time, the entry barrier for LED car lights entering the European high-end vehicles is high, basically monopolized by foreign companies such as Osram, Nichia, and Philips Lumileds. Chinese Taiwanese and mainland companies can only seize the aftermarket repair market. Difficult to cut into the original lights supply chain.

Lu Hongyuan, director of the market marketing center of Jingyuan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jinyuan Optoelectronics”), told LED lighting world reporter that at present, in the field of automotive lighting, LED companies in mainland China and LED companies in Taiwan mainly do after-hours. The market (that is, the after-sales market) only installs their products as replacements when there are problems with the original lights and they need to be replaced.

He further revealed that currently in the field of automotive lighting, Epistar's LED chips are mainly applied to the interior lighting. In his view, the technical threshold for LED car lighting is high, and it is very difficult for domestic LED lighting companies to enter the supply chain of the original car. Because the original car has basically formed a closed supply chain, car manufacturers will not easily change the supplier of the lamp. It takes a long time for LED companies to cut into it, and once LED companies cut into the original car lighting supply Chains, automakers will not easily change suppliers, the market will be relatively stable. In addition, its profits are also higher than general lighting.

Hong Kai Optoelectronics vice president Zheng Minhui also said that many LED companies do not want to talk with the depot design company to cooperate, but to talk with the After market or some of the so-called foundry cooperation, so that the product price is not so ideal. Therefore, he believes that LED companies need to go out if they want to gain something in the automotive field.

Last year, it was reported that the supply contract signed between Taiwan factory Yiguang and the European Department’s depot had for the first time broken down the situation that Taiwan’s LED lighting companies could only compete for the auto aftermarket. They supplied the depot directly.

It is understood that the main reasons for restricting domestic LED companies to cut into the high-end LED lamp supply chain are: LED companies are not familiar with the international standard system of car lights, lack of core technology, lack of market operation capability, and the high cost of LED lights themselves.

LED car lighting will enter the fast-growing channel

Although the technology and application threshold of automotive lighting is high, as a new profit growth point for LED companies, its future market prospects are broad.

It is understood that in the LED market, the LED automotive lighting and general lighting market is growing fastest, and industry insiders predict that the global LED automotive lighting market will have a compound growth rate of approximately 9% in 2014-2018, and the global LED car market in 2018. With the lighting market output will reach 2.5 billion US dollars.

At last year's automotive lighting cutting-edge symposium, the head of Hella’s Chinese marketing department also made optimistic forecasts: “In 2014, there will be 245,000 sets of LED car headlights on the entire domestic market, and this quantity will reach In 2016, it will reach 907,500 units, which will more than quadruple the growth, while the use of LED-enabled automotive taillights will be even more extensive.Hella predicts that from 2013 to 2019, the market share of LED headlamps Will increase from 1% to 10%."

Although foreign companies have dominated LED automotive lighting in the past, LED companies in mainland China and Taiwan have not intended to abandon the competition in this area. They are also actively exploring and seeking a share. Taiwan factory such as Everlight, Jingdian, Hongkai, etc., have signed contracts with domestic and foreign automakers in an attempt to break the monopoly of foreign-invested companies in the LED auto lighting market and widen their business scope. Domestic companies are not to be outdone, such as Ruifeng Optoelectronics, Hongli Optoelectronics, Feile Audio, Xingyu, Xuelaite, etc. They may launch new lighting products, or acquire other lighting companies, or increase marketing efforts. , Signing contracts with depots and actively seizing market opportunities.

From the official pictures of the latest cars released by several major automobile giants this year, LED lights have become an indispensable trend of high-end cars. In February of this year, Land Rover released an official map of the mid-range redesigned Range Rover Aurora. The redesigned Range Rover Aurora uses a new model of the LED daytime running light set. Its lighting is brighter and can be automatically adjusted to changes in road conditions. Audi also announced on February 16 the outline of the new "R8" high-sports car and the LED headlights of the mid-engine. Among them, the standard headlamps each use 37 LEDs. In addition, BMW recently exposed the road test spy photos of the new BMW X1 on the Internet. The front fog lamp of the new BMW X1 uses an LED light source. Mercedes-Benz's new-generation CLS sports sedan adopts a multi-beam LED headlight, which can quickly and accurately adjust the headlight according to the current road conditions and traffic conditions.

Although LED lights are increasingly favored in the high-end car market, due to cost constraints, its application in the low-end automotive lighting market remains to be further developed. It is reported that the average gross profit of LED car lighting is more than 30%. This is an attractive “sweet spot” for the LED lighting industry that is struggling with the price war. According to the current development trend, it can be predicted that the development of LED lights in the future will enter a rapid growth track.