Lighting is a fundamental part of the automotive industry, providing a necessary safety blanket for driving in dark conditions and ambience for a greater consumer experience inside the vehicle. But as lighting technology is improving in other industries, how has this translated over to the automotive space?

In this insight, the use of lighting technology will be analyzed, looking into how different OEMs offer lighting to the consumer and how the market is reacting.

Lighting Strategy

To analyze how the market and consumers have responded to lighting technology introductions, a selection of lighting technologies has been chosen and researched using data from VehiclePlannerPlus. These technologies are as follows:

• Halogen Headlights
• HID / Xenon Headlights
• LED Headlights
• LED Taillights
• Interior Ambient Lighting

To see how OEMs are introducing the latest lighting technologies, the availability of the selected technologies over time can be examined. This allows the introduction and development rate of these technologies to be viewed. The below chart illustrates how these features have been introduced over the last 9 years.

This chart shows us the transition from old to new lighting technologies in the automotive industry. Back in 2013, Halogen headlights were available on 54% of all vehicles sold in North America; move forward to 2022 and that has shrunk to 27%, with LED headlights now being the headlight of choice – available on 72% of all vehicles. In the years leading up to 2022, LED taillights had a significantly larger market availability than LED headlights. This is likely due to ease of implementation and lack of legislation in the NA market regarding taillights when compared with headlights.

Leading on from this, we can also see how consumers are reacting to the rise and fall in the availability of these lighting technologies. The below chart shows a comparison between market availability and penetration rate between 2019 and 2021.

As expected, the penetration rate is following the increase or decrease in availability for the technologies looked at in this article.

Ambient Lighting

Another interesting feature that has seen recent uptake is ambient lighting. Using small LED lighting strips across the trim allows the user to choose the color hue they desire inside the vehicle, often making the car appear more “luxurious” or “sporty” depending on the chosen color. So which vehicle segments see the greatest availability for ambient lighting?

This chart showcases the availability of ambient lighting for each vehicle segment between the years 2013 and 2022. Through it, we can see that sports cars, whether that be grand tourers or coupes, have the highest feature availability. This will be down to the client base that purchases these vehicles expecting a high level of luxury and comfort for the price being paid. Pickup trucks on the other hand do not feature high availability; with utility being a primary selling point of pickups, customizable lighting is unlikely to be a feature sought out by most customers.

Lighting Technology Features

To be able to analyze which vehicle segment is providing the latest and best value lighting features to its consumers, we can create a scoring matrix using feature fitment data from VehiclePlannerPlus. These lighting features have been identified as being both important and useful to a modern-day vehicle. The below list of features is not intended to be exhaustive, so if you’re interested in seeing some additional features for this analysis, please reach out. The features included are as follows:

• Adaptive Headlights
• Automatic On/Off Headlights
• Cornering Headlights
• LED Headlights
• Wiper Activated Headlights
• LED Taillights
• Automatic Headlamp Dipping

Using these features and their fitment, a scoring system can be created to show how much customers are getting for their money, and which segment is providing the best value for the consumer. The scoring system works as follows:

• Feature is Standard on the vehicle: 2 Points
• Feature is Optional on the vehicle: 1 Point
• Feature is N/A on the vehicle: 0 Points

Using this scoring method, the below chart can be created. This showcases the score for each model of vehicle sold in the North American market against that vehicle’s MSRP. Trendlines for each segment have also been overlayed. The higher the score (X axis), and the lower the price (Y axis), the better the value. The steeper the trend line for a segment, the smaller the incremental value gain relative to the $ price increase.

If you wish to view specific segments individually, please select them from the drop-down menu on the chart.

The key takeaways from this chart are:

1. Much like the ambient lighting analysis above, vehicles in the “Sport” segment are providing the least value for money, not because they don’t provide the features, but purely because of their high MSRP. “Sport” segments dominate the two highest gradient trendlines on the chart.
2. Car - Compact is the segment providing the highest value for money for the consumer; featuring vehicles that are scoring highly, but at a MSRP below $40,000.