Rick Merritt Courtesy of EE Times (12/14/2007 1:03 PM EST)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will take a more prominent role as an alternative to incandescent light bulbs and halogen and xenon lamps in automotive electronics, according to a new report from IMS Research (Wellingborough, England). Applications in external lighting will drive growth in LED use in cars from a $650 million market in 2006 to a projected $1.3 billion in 2010, IMS predicts.

Today LEDs are primarily used inside cars in applications such as backlighting dashboards and displays as well as a wide range of indicator lamps. Looking forward, the LED value from external lamps will rise from a third of the LED total to over a half by 2013, driven in part by use as daytime running lights (DRLs), said Jamie Fox, an IMS Research analyst who wrote the report.

"Daytime Running Lights will become much more widely used in the future. The DRL business will grow from under $5 million last year to over $100 million by 2013," said Fox.

LED DRLs, which were first introduced on the Audi A8 in 2004, are currently used on less than one percent of vehicles, according to IMS Research. The market watcher forecasts revenues for LED DRLs will grow in the next decade to become similar in size to the market for LEDs in rear lighting for cars today.

Use of DRLs currently varies around the globe. They are required in some countries including Canada, Finland and Sweden. In other countries, such as the USA, they are not required but appear on many vehicles.

Other countries, such as England neither require nor use DRLs widely. However, recent studies by the European Union concluded DRLs can save lives, a fact that is expected to drive new regulations requiring them.

"LED DRLs have long lifetimes and low power consumption as well as an attractive appearance," said Fox.

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