Automotive Lighting expected to Grow 4 percent in 2022
LED headlights and intelligent headlights, logo lamps, and ambient lights will sustain a backstop for market demand, says TrendForce
According to TrendForce's latest '2022 Global Automotive LED Product Trend and Regional Market Analysis' report, although demand in the car market will decline in 2022 due to the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war and China's pandemic resurgence, but there will also be gains.
These will be made in the penetration rate of LED headlights coupled with the development of advanced technologies such as intelligent headlights, logo lamps, and intelligent ambient lights will sustain a backstop for market demand in automotive lighting in 2022.
At the same time, the soaring cost of plastics will compel automotive lighting product pricing to remain flat or even increase. Therefore, TrendForce forecasts that the market value of the global automotive lighting will reach $32.68 billion in 2022, 4 percent YoY. The top five international automotive lighting manufacturers Koito, Valeo, Marelli Automotive Lighting, Hella, and Stanley, maintained a combined market share of 65 percent in 2021.
Whether conventional or electric, car manufacturers have strongly increased the penetration rate of LED headlights in recent years, stabilizing and increasing market share through enhancing product differentiation.
According to TrendForce investigations, the global penetration rate of LED headlights in passenger cars reached 60 percent in 2021.The penetration rate of LED headlights in electric vehicles was as high as 90 percent, and the penetration rate in conventional and electric vehicles is expected to increase to 72 percent and 92 percent, respectively, in 2022.
From a technical standpoint, many ADB Headlight technologies feature in intelligent headlights. At this stage, Matrix LEDs with 12~100 LEDs is the mainstream design which uses individually controlled high performance LEDs to expand the field of drivers’ nighttime vision, effectively shortening drivers’ reaction time to oncoming obstacles and achieve better roadway lighting. At the same time, Glare-Free High Beams reduce discomfort caused by the lights of vehicles ahead of the driver, oncoming vehicles, and pedestrians.
The market penetration rate of ADB headlights will only be 3.2 percent in 2022. With the gradual improvement of regulations on ADB headlights in various countries, the introduction of Micro LED Pixel Array into ADB headlights can greatly increase the pixels available for accurate independent digital control to 10,000~30,000.
When there are more LED pixels, the illumination area can be more flexibly adjusted to increase driving safety and meet the needs of market regulations in various regions and assist lighting manufacturers in reducing the cost of headlight development, production, and logistics in different regional markets. The market penetration rate of ADB headlights is forecast to have an opportunity to reach 13.2 percent in 2026, which will drive the market value of the overall automotive lighting to reach $39.496 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 4.7 percent from 2021 to 2026.
In addition, watch for major mergers and acquisitions in 2021-2022, such as Faurecia's acquisition of Hella to establish a merged Forvia and Plastic Omnium’s acquisition of AMLS (Ams Osram Automotive Lighting Systems GmbH) and VLS’s automotive lighting business. These mergers helped both Forvia and Plastic Omnium integrate interior lighting, mechanical components, in-cabin display, and sensing components for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving trends. In the long term, the trend of automotive lighting will develop towards Personalisation, Communication Display, and Driver Assistance.
