The European Union has officially included Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting’s E-Light LED technology among the eco-innovations for automobiles.
02 Apr 2014 | 3171 Views | By Autocar Pro News Desk
The European Union has officially included Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting’s E-Light LED technology among the eco-innovations for automobiles.
The E-Light LED low-beam module allows simultaneous savings in energy and fuel consumption, with superior lighting performance to the benefit of motorists. The E-Light uses about 1/6 of the energy of ...
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The European Union has officially included Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting’s E-Light LED technology among the eco-innovations for automobiles.
The E-Light LED low-beam module allows simultaneous savings in energy and fuel consumption, with superior lighting performance to the benefit of motorists. The E-Light uses about 1/6 of the energy of a traditional halogen light bulb.
This solution guarantees those carmakers that fit the E-Light a bonus of 1 g CO2/km per vehicle, allowing considerable potential savings on the strict sanctions set for automobile manufacturers by European regulations on vehicle emissions.
The regulations in force within the EU aim at a gradual reduction in CO2 emissions, starting from a limit of 130 g CO2/km in 2015, down to 95 g CO2/km in 2020, with sanctions applied to each gram over this limit.
From 2012 onwards, if the average CO2 emissions of a carmaker’s fleet exceeds the limit value set by the legislator, the carmaker will be required to pay a fine for the excess emissions of each registered vehicle. This fine amounts to € 5 (Rs 413) for the first g/km over the limit, € 15 (Rs 1,241) for the second g/km over the limit, € 25 (Rs 2,068) for the third g/km over the limit, up to € 95 (Rs 7,861) for all subsequent g/km over the limit.
Starting in 2019, the fine will be increased to € 95 as from the first gram over the limit.
The eco-innovations envisaged by the EU are a specific category of technologies that provide a confirmed contribution in terms of reducing CO2 emissions, certified by third-party bodies and verified in real life and in the actual road use of the vehicle.
According to the regulations sanctioned by the European Commission, all carmakers, upon request, can benefit from a credit of up to a maximum of 7 g/CO2 if they adopt approved and certified eco-innovations on each vehicle.
The innovative content of the E-light LED low beam module lies in the advanced use of light refraction/reflection techniques through the use of lens that concentrate, in an extremely effective way, the light beam generated by a limited number of light diode sources (LEDs).
During the analysis and certification phase of this solution, the term of comparison used to prove the efficacy of E-Light in reducing emissions was the halogen light bulb. Even when compared to the power in watts, the difference is clear: the E-Light LED low beam uses up 11 watts compared to the 68 watts of a regular halogen low beam light bulb, with superior performance in terms of lighting power.
E-Light can be applied to newly developed models of cars currently in existence, and the credit of 1g CO2/km will be acknowledged for the specific model that adopts the solution as from the design phase, for greater flexibility in vehicle design from the standpoint of CO2 emissions.
“The decision taken by the European Commission is very important for us,” said Eugenio Razelli, CEO of Magneti Marelli, “because it actually confirms the efficacy of the advanced LED lighting technology developed by Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting, within the scope of the stringent regulatory framework for the reduction of vehicle CO2 emissions as of 2020.”
He added, “LED technology is revolutionizing the world of lighting, not only in the automotive sector. Adopting this technology on automobiles requires the ability to add LEDs to the automobile system and associate them to electronics in order to optimize their operation. The use of traditional halogen lamps will gradually decrease on automobiles too: they are already gone from some of the top-of-the-range full-LED headlamps, replaced by luminous diodes arranged in a matrix and electronically activated.”
The technological evolution that derives from LED and Xenon technologies – with the 35-Watt configuration as well as with the new, highly competitive 25-Watt solution – has opened up new frontiers in the area of safety and reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, at the same time offering new possibilities in terms of look and design.
The most recent solutions in the lighting area in terms of technological content are the full-LED solutions for headlamps, with all lighting functions carried out through LED technology. Specifically, the adaptive full-LED light matrix headlamp is proof of how electronics is increasingly changing lighting technologies too. The development line, in particular for adaptive LED lighting, requires for all the mechanical functions involved in pointing the light beam to be gradually replaced by electronic functions capable of controlling the direction of the beam and the luminous intensity of the LEDs. Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting is already producing fully electronic full-LED headlamps.