I remember when Bosch and Magneti Marelli merged their vehicle lighting operations to create Automotive Lighting in 1999. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to be surprised by the name Automotive Lighting—a (deliberately?) overt attempt to make the new company synonymous with its industry. At that time, the turnover was at €500m with around 6,000 employees including 360 technicians in 12 locations. Now 17 years later, the turnover has multiplied by seven, with 17 new locations—about one new location per year, on average. There are many reasons for this progress; see this week’s in-depth report on AL innovations. But the two main reasons are the strong growth of the vehicle lighting market with its higher and higher added value, and the innovations developed by AL for premium cars: LED and laser technologies, modules, ADB, and integrated optoelectronic concepts including functional hardware and software solutions.
I was impressed during my recent visit at AL by two things: the involvement of everyone I met to develop new products and to be the best in the market, and the innovations I have seen with the S-Light, the L-Light, and the new laser module, simpler and more compact than the former one.
Among other news,
– The DVN Shanghai Workshop was held last week with a great success: 370 attendees, 25 interesting lectures, 25 exhibitions, a panel session on regulations, and a round table on the future of automotive lighting in a wonderful hotel with an innovative LED screen for presentation of the lectures. A report of this event will be published next month with many pictures and access to the slide shows as authorised by the speakers and their companies.
– In the May 9th newsletter, you will receive all the information about DVN’s very important study: ” Identify your success factors for the next decade – Impact of a changing Car Industry on Exterior Lighting: Evolution or Revolution? “.
By the way, if you received an incomplete version of the Simulation report, that was due to a technical error—we apologize for that; the complete report is now available on the website.
Sincerely yours
DVN President