LED and laser headlights are surging, why are halogen headlights still on the market?

In the 130 years of automobile evolution, car lamps have changed from chemical lamps to electric lamps, and electric lamps have developed from incandescent lamps, halogen lamps and xenon lamps to LED lamps and laser lamps. In this long 100 year, great changes have taken place in car headlights. Today, for Eddie, in the evolution of headlights, who has replaced who has not been replaced.

0 1

Brighter, longer life and more energy-saving.

Xenon headlights replace halogen as high-end darling.

In the 1960s, halogen headlights for car lamps were born, and the manufacturer was the later famous Haila (the first car equipped with Haila H4 halogen lamp was Mercedes-Benz 350SL). Halogen lamp is an upgraded version of tungsten filament incandescent lamp. Chlorine gas and iodine gas are injected into the original bulb, and the tungsten element in the bulb will be neutralized after lighting, so that not only the lampshade will not turn black, but also the brightness will be increased by 1.5 times, and the life of the bulb will be prolonged by 2-3 times.

Because people's requirements for automobile quality have become higher, halogen lamps with lower performance can't meet the demand, so xenon headlights have appeared.

Xenon lamp broke the luminous principle of tungsten wire invented by Edison. Compared with previous halogen bulbs, xenon lamps can increase the light intensity by about three times, but the energy consumption is only one-third of it, and the service life is greatly improved.

Xenon headlights use almost the same color as sunlight, creating better visual conditions for drivers and greatly improving the safety and comfort of driving. Due to the cost problem, xenon headlights have been used in flagship models and become the darling of high-end models (BMW 7 Series released by 1992 is the first model in the world to use xenon headlights).

02

Used to be a symbol of the flagship.

Xenon headlights are still "lost" to LEDs.

However, xenon headlights are not only expensive, but also have the disadvantage of astigmatism, which will cause glare to the opposite driver. Even in today's advanced technology, the starting speed of xenon headlights is relatively slow.

Since then, LED headlights have appeared. LED headlights have a particularly popular name: light emitting diode. It is a solid semiconductor device that can convert electric energy into visible light and can directly convert electricity into light.

The advantages of LED are very clear, more energy-saving, longer service life, free modeling to adapt to all kinds of car lights, strong penetration in rainy and foggy weather, fast start-up speed, and gradually reducing costs. Therefore, xenon headlights are gradually replaced by LEDs with better comprehensive performance in less than 10 years. The price of models equipped with LED headlights ranges from tens of thousands to millions, and low, medium and high-end models are "all-inclusive".

03

What is really "replaced" is xenon headlights.

Halogen headlights are still very marketable.

In fact, xenon headlights only replaced the market of high-end halogen headlights when they appeared, and LED headlights with stronger comprehensive performance did not completely replace the halogen headlights market.

According to the ***750 national ⅵ vehicles and ***6800 national ⅵ vehicles recorded on the website of Easy Car (choosing the latest national ⅵ standard vehicles is helpful to count the new vehicles in recent years), among which the vehicles equipped with halogen headlights reach 37 10, even exceeding the sum of those equipped with xenon headlights, LED headlights and laser headlights.

Why xenon headlights are gradually being replaced, and many halogen headlights have poor comprehensive performance?

Because halogen headlights are cost-effective, xenon headlights are not as high as LED and as good as halogen headlights, so they are gradually replaced.

In detail, the advantages of halogen headlights mainly include two aspects:

First, car companies have low manufacturing costs. Halogen headlights are mainly used in low-end models, and models below 50,000 are halogen headlights; There are only 23 LED headlights in the price range of 50,000-80,000, and the others are halogen headlights. Most of these price models are mainly for home use and are very sensitive to price. If you want to control the price, you will naturally choose halogen headlights with lower cost.

High-end models also use halogen headlights, and the price range is12-180,000. Halogen headlights and LED headlights are almost fifty-fifty. The models using halogen headlights are basically the entry-level models of cars (mostly joint venture brands), such as Civic, or the middle and high-end models of cars (mostly independent brands), such as Haval H6.

Obviously, halogen headlights have become the standard for many entry-level models or entry-level models. On the one hand, because of the low configuration cost, manufacturers can lower the selling price to attract consumers, on the other hand, they can also guide consumers to buy higher-equipped models with LED headlights to a certain extent.

From the perspective of the whole market, the top ten cars sold in September this year, except Honda CR-V, have the highest selling price of less than 200,000, which is precisely the price of halogen headlights. Therefore, halogen headlights not only have a market, but also have a very large market.

Second, the user cost is low. Headlights are also vulnerable parts of cars. In addition to normal aging, abnormal damages such as collision and rubbing are also common, especially cars. A lower body means a high probability of damage after rear-end collision. If it is broken, it will cost money. Halogen headlights and LED headlights are obviously cheaper. The low cost of halogen headlights is more obvious for cars with a price of only tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.

In addition, halogen headlights are more conducive to being identified in rainy and foggy weather, and the starting speed is faster than that of xenon headlights. Halogen headlights have few advantages, but each advantage is very obvious. Of course, the most important thing is the absolute advantage brought by low cost.

As an important automobile technology, the history of automobile lights is almost synchronous with that of automobiles, and with the progress of technology, the story of automobile lights will continue. From the current point of view, although halogen headlights still occupy a large market in low-end models because of their cost advantages, with the rapid decline in the cost of LED headlights, the market share of halogen headlights will be further occupied by LED headlights.

If the cost of LED headlights drops to a level similar to that of halogen headlights, the market for halogen headlights may really be gone. Similarly, if the cost of laser headlights drops to a level similar to that of LED headlights, there will be no LED in car headlights.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.