We received many comments about last week’s editorial raising the idea of banning halogen headlamps. Most of the reactions share the same opinion and look forward to promote LED or Xenon and ban halogen: huge energy reduction, much better reliability, more or less equal total cost if we consider equal lighting performance.
But halogen will maintain its market share, most comments say, unless we solve the negative points of LEDs: lack of standardisation, specific package, obsolescence, delivery lives, all the drawbacks underlined during the last 2011 DVN Paris workshop and especially with the lectures of Renault, PSA, AL, and Valeo and on line with the main conclusion of the DVN workshop round table focused on light sources.
In order to start solving step by step these negative points, the organisation of a Working Group was identified at the DVN workshop as the preferred solution.
This working group should include the main players: global LED and LED package manufacturers, car makers, lighting suppliers, universities and regulators. I am open to help this community to succeed and I will call the main players involved in this subject in order to better know their position. A future DVN Workshop to be held in the next months will also pave the way to aggressively push in the same direction. Automotive lighting is at the front, at the rear, and on the sides of the imperative to reduce energy consumption without decreasing safety, styling, or performance. We have to work together on it. Please continue to give me your feedback; it is essential to win this challenge and succeed.
Sincerely yours,
DVN General Editor