Global automotive LED light market trend and analysis in 2023

Currently, the global economy remains very weak although inflation is slowing down in Europe and North America. Auto makers have been lowering vehicle prices to stimulate sales, which has caused fierce price competition. Due to fierce price competition in vehicle market, prices of automotive LEDs have dropped very much. The advanced technologies related to ADB headlights, Mini LED taillights, full-width taillights, logo lamps, and (intelligent) ambient lights will make the automotive LED market volume up to USD 3.307 billion in 2023.

1. Higher LED Headlight penetration rate
The global penetration rate of LED headlights for passenger vehicles reached 70% in 2022, while that for electric vehicles even hit 92%; the two rates will likely grow to 77% and 94% in 2023, respectively.

Matrix LED is the biggest market requirement for ADB headlights. Through independent control of high-performance LEDs, the matrix layout can widen drivers field of view at night, reduce their reaction time when seeing an obstacle, and achieve better driving illumination. Glare-free high beams help reduce discomfort for drivers of vehicles ahead, those of oncoming vehicles, and prevent pedestrians from being dazzled by headlights. With the use of Micro LED pixel array, the number of pixels available for accurate and independent digital control in an ADB headlight can be up to 10,000-100,000. The greater the pixel number, the more flexible the illumination area can be, so as to improve driving safety and flexibility for compliance with legal requirements among different regions and markets. In this way, automotive lighting manufacturers can save development, manufacturing, and logistics costs for different regions and markets. It is estimated that the penetration rate of ADB headlights was only 3.7% in 2022, but it will be possibly up to 17.0% in 2027.

2. More innovative taillight designs in market
Full-width, Mini LED, and OLED-like taillights are currently the top three items preferred among automakers and consumer. Future trends for automotive lighting—personalization, communication, and ADAS / autonomous driving results in more market requirement for Mini LED taillights. With high-pixel local dimming, Mini LED enables the taillight to dynamically align with the driving experiences by changing displayed images, allowing drivers of vehicles behind to recognize the car more easily and reduce the risk of car accidents. When the car is idle, the taillight then turns from a lighting to a display providing vehicle-related information.  Mini LED taillights have been adopted by IM Motors and GWM (SAR Mecha Dragon), Audi (Q5) might adpot the Mini LED taillights,too.

3. Grille Lamp / Full-Width Front Stripe
Leading auto makers adopting grille lamps and full-width front stripes include Mercedes Benz (EQS), Volkswagen (ID.3 / ID.4), BYD, Xpeng (P5), Changan Ford (Mondeo), Sony (VISION-S 02), BMW (i7), Rolls-Royce (Spectre), Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Lucid, and Li Auto. More and more EV models intend to adopt grille lamps in 2023. Grille lamp is moving from linear design towards full-width front stripe design.

4. Ambient Light
Automakers in Europe and China have been using ambient lights for years. Since 2022, intelligent ambient lights featuring RGB LEDs as built-in driver ICs have been installed onto BMW’s vehicles and will be gradually introduced to other European and Chinese models.
Cars equipped with intelligent ambient lights cover Hongqi H9, ZEEKR 001, Leapmotor C01, BMW iX / i7 / XM, etc.

In the year 2022, the top three automotive LED manufacturers  have secured a 69.2% market share, with the top ten such as such as Osram, Philips and Seoul Semiconductor,Hella,etc claiming a 97.6% share.

Seoul Semiconductor’s automotive LED revenue increased 14%, benefited from automotive backlight revenue. As Samsung LED’s PixCell LED has been installed in the Tesla Model 3 / Y, its automotive LED revenue surges. With enhanced production capacity of automotive LEDs, Samsung LED’s automotive LED revenue for 2022 accelerated 35%.