I decided to visit Bus World Europe in Brussels to have a look at the lighting trends. This is the biggest bus event in Europe, with 550 exhibitors from 40 countries – including fully 81 bus builders! Two companies in particular motivated me to join: OE Industry, who attended the DVN events last year in Shanghai and Munich, and Vignal who I met two weeks ago at ISAL. This is not a market I am quite familiar with, and I wanted to know more.
My first takeaway is that standardization is still, as always centrally important in the lighting for buses, but now it’s being rejuvenated with increasing focus on design – moving beyond just basic round, square, and linear shapes. Also, the light bulb is extinct in this sector; all lamps are only equipped with LEDs (while we still see bulb on new cars like the Dacia Sandero we covered last week).
Lamps are no longer just a component; they’re increasingly integral to the design and style of the whole vehicle—just as in the passenger car sector. Take a look at the MAN headlamp above, and the Vinfast, Mercedes, and Setra rear lamps. The Vinfast bus has a full-width red light bar cradling the V emblem, while the functional left and right lights appear to be from Hella’s Shapeline module range.
In-lamp branding is also a clear trend, perhaps to thwart counterfeit replacement parts, and it’s being done in ways that are making lamps super nice.
Another area of interest is displays. Buses have had them for many years, to display route names and numbers, and so they are everywhere. With a bus, what is interesting also is the design opportunity to integrate the lamp/display into the windshield.
It was quite interesting to discuss with display supplier how they’re doing with pitch, contrast, luminance, and suchlike. I took a lot of contacts for a longer discussion, so watch for that in forthcoming DVNewsletters.
