This week, DVN was part of Equip’Auto, a big aftermarket event with more than 1,400 exhibitors. The organization committee contacted DVN to craft a session on vehicle lighting to explain to dealers, insurance companies, and fleet managers the new technology now on the roads, and its effects on the aftermarket. This session gathered Renault, Valeo, AMS Osram, and Ultinon Motion (new parent brand of the consumer-facing Philips and Narva vehicle lighting product families).
I started the introduction with key figures for aftermarket: in Europe, five million lights are changed per year, and the average lamp replacement in France is €1,000. I described the remarks we have received from different associations about glare and some of its causes.
Valeo explained the new technologies with clear explanation and mentioned that 25 per cent of vehicles in Europe are equipped with ADB, which cuts nighttime crashes by 5 to 7 per cent for equipped vehicles. However we need highly-accurate aiming for lamps and ADAS cameras to have proper system performance.
AMS Osram and Ultinon Motion presented their certified LED retrofit bulbs, saying they can increase performance and reduce power consumption. However, currently between 5 and 10 oper cent of halogen bulbs are replaced by non-homologated LED bulbs that generate out-of-control glare and give the driver improper seeing. Ultinon Motion even said glare causes 2 to 3 per cent of nighttime crashes.
Renault continued with datas about dealer problems for lamp aiming. Sometimes the machine is not accurate, and sometimes the machine would be fine but the floor is not level.
We were a bit like evangelists at this event; the idea was to explain, listen, and see how we can improve the overall performance of vehicle lighting systems. Because the aftermarket is a huge business, discussion is not easy because everybody is protecting is business. All in all, it was really interesting and all of us are convinced there is a need to discuss more between OE and after-sales market segments.
