LEDs in automobiles

Audi A4 LED running lights:Energy efficient and good looking

Slowly over the years LEDs are being used more in “mainstream” automobiles. LEDs run cooler than conventional bulbs, draw less power and last longer. So why isn’t everyone using them? Cost was a major obstacle as well as getting the desired illumination from them. LED lights have been used in tail lights for a while. The main benefit for tail light use is that they illuminate much quicker than a conventional bulb. Those milli-seconds of illuminating sooner translates into given the driver behind you more time to react to your braking.

The USA has been rather slow to adapt to automobile lighting standards elsewhere in the world. The first “free form” headlight allowed to be installed in a production US car was in the 1984 Lincoln Mark VII. While European cars had these aerodynamic flush mounted headlights for years we still had those sealed beam headlights. The flush headlamp really gave designers a new way to design interesting shapes….no longer confined to a specific size of sealed beam headlamp. The halogen sealed beam headlight was the best we could do for “bright” headlamps. It took a while before HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlights were allowed to be sold on cars here.

Today just about every car has flush mounted headlamps. HID lights are offered on many cars now….not just luxury brands. Luxury brands often offer “new” features before they become affordable to do so on “lesser” cars. The world’s first production car to offer white LED headlamps as standard equipment was the 2008 Lexus LS600h. Seeing LEDs used as primary headlights is very rare today. In fact seeing LEDs up front is still unique. I’m sure it won’t be long before we see other manufactures jump

Lexus LS600h: Looks like "spider eyes".

on the band wagon. BMW had their “halo” lights years ago and now Audi has their “eyelash” LEDs. These certainly give these cars a distinct look for the moment. However, some manufactures look like they are trying to catch up with Audi and simply “slap on” a strip of LEDs rather than making it part of the overall design of the car. Case in point the new

Mercedes-Benz E-class. The LED “foglights” are attached to the front bumper fascia….like they are glued on versus designed in.

See those little "stuck on" LED lights

I’m sure they’ll get better with using them as time goes on.

Now LEDs are also showing up for interior lights as well. The 2009 Audi A4 uses LED lights for all the inter

ior foot well lights. They come on quick and offer a nice bright consistent light for

seeing your way in. There are companies that make replacement LED bulbs that will fit in your existing overhead interior “dome light” to provide you with the “fresh” modern look. Since these LEDs produc less heat, consume less power, last much longer and provide brighter illumination…..their application seems perfect for interior lights as well. It has taken time to develop  the right sized LED to be used for headlamp but as cost come down, I’m sure we’ll see more application of LEDs all over the car. Heck, even KITT had LED lights.

Knight Rider's KITT

BlueTEC ML320 on order

So it appears that my search for “the next car” is just about over. What started in April…..is just about finished. Last Saturday (30-Aug-2008) we sat in a new 2009 ML that had rubber studded siderails. Why the sidesrails? Well, our last visit to the dealership we both felt that getting into the ML was a bit more difficult than it needed to be. At the time the dealer did not have a model with siderails to try out. So this time (a few months later)he had 2009 models in (that have tweaked front and rear styling as well as updated interior and a major upgrade to the iPod and telematics integration).

The nice thing is that since this is our second car from the dealer….he doesn’t require any down payment from us at all. In fact when the car comes in (being built in November should arrive in December) if we decide that we don’t want it….no problem. I think this is our best dealership experience ever in that regard.

So, why did we order something that we may not actually take home? Well, the car in question is the first 50-state legal diesel SUV. They are calling the technology BlueTEC.

How does the BlueTEC clean diesel technology work? First, the system uses an oxidizing Mercedes-Benz catalytic converter that functions to reduce carbon monoxide (CO) and unburnd hydrocarbon (HC) contents from the exhaust. Next, another catalytic converter called the DeNOx removes oxides with the help of a particulate filter. Lastly, a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalytic converter converts the other nitrogen oxides into pure nitrogen and water, with the injection of AdBlue, a urea-based material that helps to the conversion process.

So why Diesel when the price per gallon exceeds that of Gasoline? Well, that is something that is more of an issue now then it was earlier in the year when we thought of this. The EPA rating of the car is 18/24….which may not sound like much but given the size of this vehicle…it is quite good. Real word fuel economy has been observed much higher (29-32 highway) without anything trying to get good mileage. The cruising range of the car is about 600 miles. So compared to the non-diesel ML…..the improved efficiency of the engine will pay for itself in 18 months. The BlueTEC engined ML will use $720 less fuel per year.(Assuming $4.20 for gas and $5.00 for diesel). These estimates were down earlier in the year….but all things relative the premium of the diesel engine (around $1,000) will be paid back. Unlike our Hybrid car (Lexus RX400H) would had a payback period of over 8 years. Our ultimate combination would be a diesel hybrid. Unfortunately that will not happen until 2010. MB, BMW, Audi and Porsche will all offer a Hybrid-Diesel by then. We can’t wait that long as we only have one car right now that can drive in the New England snow this winter. So keep your fingers crossed that this works out for us.

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Toyota Announces Plug in Prius Plans

“Today Toyota joined almost every other major car company who had already unveiled plans for producing cars that run on energy supplied by the electric grid. Announcing the official plug-in Prius based on the most popular hybrid vehicle to date…”

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