I already interviewed you beginning of 2010. Since, in a little more than 1 year, LED technologies and Adaptive Lighting Systems have arrived and brought big innovations.
In this nice ZKW R&D center at Wieselburg, I would like to ask you questions in relation with this change.
DVN: My first question is about the ZKW company. How was 2010 year concerning sales and financial result?
Jürgen Antonitsch: We do not communicate on the financial result. About the business, we have a very good activity with sales of €300m from €220m in 2009.
DVN: You were the first to launch Xenon 25W on the Audi A1. I drove this car by night and was impressed by its efficiency. What is your feedback about the development and production few months after the start?
JA: We really started 2 months ago and we have not yet the real figures. We will have more information by the end of the second quarter. We also are looking forward for the arrival of the D5 bulb.
DVN: How do you see the trend of this light source? Do you see in the future a total integration or as 35W?
JA: The great advantage of the Xenon 25W is electronic integration. I am not sure this bulb will partly substitute Xenon 35W.
DVN: On adaptive Lighting Systems you told me last year that ZKW have close relationships to all well-known camera suppliers in the automotive industry. “Image processing is their core competence; we focus on developing the light control algorithms”. Did you change this strategy?
JA: No change of strategy. We intensify relation with camera suppliers. We want to understand how it works. ECU between camera and the headlamp has to be our job and we have people working on it.
DVN: About LED lights, we have not seen yet in production a ZKW headlamp. But the BMW 6 Series seen at Paris October 2010 shows a very interesting concept.
Could you summarize this concept?