HBLEDs Have Large Market Opportunities for Front Lighting For Cars As The HBLEDs Performance Will Increase

DUBLIN, Ireland--July 28, 2006--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c39984) has announced the addition of LED4Auto - LED & HB-LED for Automotive Applications to their offering.

Presenting a new report describing the market and technology trends for HB LEDs in automotive applications and lighting.

In 2007, GaN-based LEDs will reach a higher luminous efficiency than fluorescents. The ramping-up of solid-state lighting business will really start at that time, in particular for automotive applications, both for interior and exterior lighting.

HB-LEDs have really strong market opportunities in the automotive, many reasons for that, among them:

-- Important reliability (e.g. lifetime much larger than needed)

-- Use for internal and external lighting,

-- Low consumption and power saving

-- Mercury free

The small size of LEDs also enables:

-- New design possibilities and high tech appearance

-- Increased integration

Moreover, in term of security, LEDs have fast reaction time: LEDs light up around 250 milliseconds quicker than bulbs. Therefore, at 100 km/h speed, that means a gain in braking distance of 7 meters.

HBLEDs have large market opportunities for front lighting for cars as the HBLEDs performance will increase, fewer chips will be necessary (less than 15 should be necessary in 2009 for all functions).

The cost objective for auto (10$/klm) will be reached in 2010 for a wide diffusion of HBLEDs in front lighting. However, HBLEDs should be implemented before this date (around 2007) on high-end cars.

Today a high-end car can have up to 200 LEDs and this figure is expected to grow in the future: it could be up to 800 LEDs in 2009. The market for HB-LEDs for front light is just starting. We forecast that the market for automotive external lighting will be 40% of the total HBLED automotive market in 2009.

Regarding the white LEDs market, it will be shared by 5 major players: Lumileds, Osram, Nichia, Toyoda Gosei and Cree. Moreover, the recent interest for HUDs (Head-Up Displays) in cars should also benefit from the HBLEDs technology. HBLEDs are today bright enough to be used as a backlight on a FPD instead of bulbs.

For each of the different applications where solid state lighting could be used in a car, the report describes:

-- The current HBLED and LED products and developments for automotive

-- The bottlenecks

-- A roadmap

-- What are the technical requirements and cost?

-- The technological and market trends

-- A SWOT analysis

-- A market forecast for 2005-2010

-- The challenges

-- Conclusions

Report benefits for car makers

-- Bring a complete analysis of LED/HB LED food-chain with main players

-- Highlight the latest developments from the devices manufacturers

-- Give a quantification of market volumes

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c39984