Hector Fratty

After the Professor Ferdinand Porsche Prize was awarded  to AL and Audi, DVN interviewed Kamislav Fadel, Head of R&D at AL, about the latest AL achievements and developments in lighting: 

Driving Vision News: Congratulations on winning the Professor Ferdinand Porsche Prize! What does this prestigious award mean for you?
Kamislav Fadel: First of all I would like to emphasise that this prestigious prize is a win for Automotive Lighting’s and Audi’s development teams. Projects like Audi’s R8 full LED headlamp are unique. We needed involvement of more than 100 AL engineers in order to realize this technological milestone in our industry. Teamwork, spirit of innovation, perseverance, knowledge and courage to take and manage the risks jointly with Audi are pivotal to succeed in such a pioneering work. The Ferdinand Porsche Prize symbolises how important lighting has become for style, identity and value of modern cars.

DVN: AL are at the cutting edge in the development of LED technologies. What are the main AL achievements in these technologies?
KF : You are right to mention technologies and not technology!
In fact, AL have been already commercialised three full-LED headlamps: Audi R8, Mercedes CLS and Audi A7. All of them are different optical concepts. They present different styles with continuously increasing complexity, functionalities and performance.
It took us more than 20 years to introduce the Xenon technology, then AFS and recently the AFX technology. We are currently achieving this implementation with the full LED head lamps in two generation of cars, which means 6 years. Making this technological shift in such a short time is a great achievement. Overpassing the Xenon performance is another great success. Introducing the first swiveling LED Low beam in a full-LED headlamp, the first LED infrared function and reaching a high level of light distribution homogeneity

Wolfgang Huhn, head of light and vision at Audi, and Automotive Lighting’s Kamislav Fadel, have won the prestigious Professor Ferdinand Porsche Prize 2011 from the Technical University of Vienna.

The award was bestowed last week for the development and use of new LED technology in automobiles. Automotive LED light technology helps to save fuel—up to 0.2 litres per 100 kilometres. The prize of €50,000 is awarded every two years.
Wolfgang Huhn is also DrivingVisionNews’ “Man of the Decade”.
This 12th Porsche Prize was awarded the presence of Dr. F. Piech, Dr. Winterkorn, VW, Dr. Göschel, BMW, Dürheimer. Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Lenz, of the University of Vienna, presented the award.

Michael Dick, Audi CTO – Wolfgang Porsche – Wolfgang Huhn – Kamislav Fadel – Michael Piech,,Martin Winterkorn, VW CEO – Matthias Müller, Porsche CEO

 Prof. Dr. Bernhard Geringer , head of the Institute for Vehicle Automotive Engineering at TU Vienna and chairman of the jury, explained in his speech the significance of this development, which represents the application of advanced LED lighting for the automotive sector, thanks to three advantages:
– Significant energy savings.
– Massive increase in life.
– High degree of design freedom for vehicle design.
Porsche CEO Matthias Müller , showed the technological advantage, which was completed by the action of the two winners. “Thanks to their persistent development work, it is now possible to use LED as a light source in production vehicles.” Compared to the best halogen and xenon headlights, LED technology brings a much better lighting, with night driving safety benefits. In addition, LED lights come closer to natural daylight. Threats are detected earlier and the glare to oncoming traffic can significantly be reduced. Matthias Muller, as Prof. Dr. Bernhard Geringer, also dealt with the energy savings: “with the same light output, LED headlamp consume only about half as much energy as conventional halogen or xenon lamp, so that a reduction in consumption is possible at least up to 0.2 litres per 100 kilometres. Given the high demands of customers for the fuel economy of vehicles, this saving is not to be underestimated.”
The innovative technology of the LED headlight leads to a radically new, stunning design. In the Audi A8, the low beam is composed of ten individual modules, they retreat under the “wing” of the swing-shaped chrome outline, in an arc through the projector. Under them 22 white and yellow LEDs for daytime running lights and turn signals in the so-called “thick-wall technology,” because it appears to the viewer as a homogeneous continuous strip lighting.