LEDs boost automotive lighting market
Market to reach $35.9 billion in 2022, says Yole Développement
According to a new report 'Automotive Lighting: Technology, Industry and Market Trends 2017' by market research firm Yole Développement, the automotive lighting market was worth $25.7 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $35.9 billion in 2022, thanks to the widespread adoption of LED technology. In 2017, Yole estimates that the market should be close to $27.7 billion.
This growth is driven by natural LED cost erosion, increasing the LED penetration rate. Standardisation of LED modules and their optimisation are key factors behind decreasing costs. This has resulted in more vehicles equipped with LED technology.
Since the first full LED headlamp was introduced in 2007, LED technology has gradually penetrated headlamp design. LED technology has allowed lighting to become a distinctive feature and enabled innovative functions like the glare free adaptive high beam introduced in 2013. LED technology use had been limited to high-end vehicles and has had to compete with traditional light sources, namely halogen and high-intensity discharge (HID/Xenon). Improved LED performance, lower power consumption and flexible design were the first enablers.
Then, cost reductions helped LED technology spread to all vehicle categories.
Automotive lighting is driven by exterior lighting and especially headlamps, generating more than two-thirds of the total market revenue. Rear lighting is the second largest area, representing 17 percent of total market revenue.
Interior lighting represents almost 10 percent of revenue but growth is expected to be linked to the development of autonomous vehicles and the creation of vehicles as living homes. Other types of lighting, such as fog lamps, CHMSL or small lamps, comprised the remaining 7 percent of revenue in 2016.
"More than 100 million vehicles will be sold in 2022, but this has only a limited impact on the lighting market", comments Pierrick Boulay, technology & market analyst at Yole, in his article published on i-micronews: The automotive lighting industry will be worth $36B in 2022. He adds: "The main reason for lighting growth is that the penetration of LED technology is spreading from high-end cars to mid-range and low-end cars. LED technology propagation and more generally solid state lighting technologies will enable the development of new functionalities."
