At the DVN Paris Workshop awards ceremony following the opening dinner last night, Rainer Neumann was named DVN Personality of the Year 2013. Neumann has been in automotive lighting for about 30 years now. He started at Bosch for 13 years, then went to Italy for Magneti Marelli for 3 years, followed by 12 years with Visteon Europe, and is now with Varroc Lighting Systems. He has contributed to a lot of innovations in that time, many of which are ubiquitous on the world’s roads today, and he holds around 120 patents as inventor or co-inventor. He thinks the combination of being creative and also having the capability to make it really happen is very important.
We interviewed Rainer Neumann, the DVN personality of the year, about the future of automotive lighting.
DVN: How do you see LED technology evolving in the future?
Rainer Neumann: LED is definitely the light sources of the future. The reduced energy consumption, long life time, small packaging, new styling opportunities and green environmental contribution (less CO 2 ) are the main drivers. Exterior lighting is extensively used as a way of differentiating vehicles and brands.
DRL is a good example. More and more new configurations and shapes determine the styling of the DRLs which typically uses LEDs. Also, the overall trend in using LEDs as light sources for both rear lamps and headlamps is clearly visible. However, for LED headlamps it will take a few more years to achieve reasonable take rates in all vehicle segments.
LED light sources offer tremendous opportunities to design unique and attractive lamps. It can create a signature light, which identifies the vehicle brand and type. In the future, it will also lead to improved light performance for headlamps.