Lighting

Jean-Pascal Herlin is a mechanical engineer from Belfort University. In 1988 he got a PhD in Automatics and Robotics from Valenciennes University. He then joined Magneti Marelli in 1989 and covered different jobs mainly in production in Italy. In 1996 he moved to the UK as Operations Manager in two production plants including a lighting plant with up to 1,000 employees. In 2002, he became AL’s head of lighting development in Italy. In 2005, after the reorganisation of AL, he became the R&D director of all rear lighting activity in Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Turkey, and Brazil, managing around 380 people. He graciously granted us this exclusive DVN interview.

DVN: After your time in charge of rear lighting at AL’s R&D group, what is your feedback on rear lighting activity in comparison with other activities.
Jean-Pascal Herlin: Developing rear lamps is an interesting and stimulating job. We have, over the last 10 years, seen a great evolution of content and complexity, a progressive increase of the importance of styling and differentiation, the shift to full LED rear lamps, and the addition of a few new functionalities. This has led to opportunities for growth in terms of resources, competences, and turnover.
With a world market share of 13%—second after Koito—AL have an extremely wide customer base and are developing around 60 to 80 new rear lamps per year. Amongst the latest achievements we can mention Audi A3, A4, Q7, R8; VW Passat, Golf; BMW 2 and 7 Series, Mercedes CLS, E, GL, GLA; Porsche Panamera (with 392 LEDs), Opel Corsa, Merica, Astra, Insignia, Zafira, Renault Duster, Captur, Clio, Megane, Talisman and many others.