According to the newly released 2019 Global Automotive LED Market Report- Passenger Car and Box Truck report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, the global automotive market has been showing declines since 2018 amid global trade frictions and economic recessions, and this also caused revenue for automotive LED products to grow at a slow pace. Global automotive LED revenue is forecast to register a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period 2018-2023.

Despite the continual decline in car sales, the penetration rates of LEDs in various major automotive lighting products continued to rise. Furthermore, new energy cars have a greater demand for LEDs than traditional cars do while boasting a faster growth in shipments. This will cause the volume of and revenue for automotive LED products to maintain a growth trend in future years, with global automotive LED revenue forecast to arrive at US$3.17 billion in 2019.

Automotive LED Revenue Declining for European and American Suppliers, with Asian Suppliers Performing Brilliantly

Looking at the automotive LED revenue rankings for major LED package suppliers worldwide, we see no noticeable differences in ranking between 2017 and 2018, with OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, Nichia and Lumileds still taking the top three. However, we may find that amid declining car markets in both China and the US, OSRAM, Lumileds and other suppliers registered flat growth or small declines in revenue from automotive LED products, 2018. Japan’s vehicle market gave a rather brilliant performance in 2018, allowing Nichia, Stanley and other Japanese LED suppliers to grow in revenue.

Besides the three industry giants, OSRAM, Nichia and Lumileds, we also see more and more suppliers actively competing for a share of the automotive LED market. Seoul Semiconductors stood out among Korean suppliers by eagerly meeting the demands of customers for high power and reliability, providing nPola, WICOP and other products for use in automotive exterior lighting, posting steady revenue growth for automotive products. Dominant has been expanding its presence in the markets for taillights and ambient lights, and enjoyed a 10% automotive revenue growth in 2018. It is currently promoting its SmartRGB LED products, and has already come up with ambient lights tailored for BMW car models and scheduled to hit the shelves in 2020.

We also observed that Everlight, CREE and other suppliers are actively establishing their place in the OE market and posted significant growth in revenue. Everlight’s automotive LED products earned a revenue of around US$48 million, putting the company at eighth place globally and making it the only Taiwanese supplier among the top ten. Everlight has currently mass produced headlight LEDs, which are poised to penetrate the market consisting of top tier European and American vehicle manufacturers. Everlight has also released taillight mini LED concept products, manufactured through the use of its own small-pitch display components and poised to find actual application in 2020.

Furthermore, Everlight plans to extend its business to automotive modules, and is already scheduling the construction of a module production line in its Suzhou plant. We may see Everlight grabbing a bigger portion of the automotive lighting market in the future.

As product technology improves, automotive lighting will be more and more focused on light source reliability and design features. The automotive LED market monopoly may be broken up gradually in the future.

Headlight is Experiencing Strong Growth, with Ambient Light Seeing Larger Penetration Rate in the High-end Market

For product development, we see an increasing variety of LED headlights in the market, with mainstream suppliers releasing mono-chip or double-chip LEDs for use in low beam applications. As LEDs move towards smaller sizes, headlights are being designed with increasing flexibility as the range of features in demand go beyond lighting to include intelligent systems and even projectors. Revenue and penetration rates for LED headlights are expected to keep growing in the future years to come.

LED Headlights / Lumileds LUXEON NEO LED

For automotive interiors, we see some suppliers releasing LED products with RGB or better specifications for use in ambient lights within cars in an attempt to go along with the current intelligent lighting trend. This allows them to realize effects such as full color mixing and dynamic ambience and create a customized vibe for car interiors. Suppliers of ambient light LEDs mainly consist of Dominant, OSRAM, Everlight, Lite-On, Brightek etc.

Interior Ambient Light / Everlight CH2525 LED

Everlight, for example, released its new 0.2W 2525 LED for use in ambient lights, which combines a ceramic substrate with 4 chips and is already AEC-Q102 certified. This design allows customers to decide which chip combination (e.g. RRYY or RGBB) to be most suitable for the interior of their cars, providing them with a vaster palette of possibilities than possible with RGB LEDs.

Furthermore, the size of 2525 LEDs allows them to be more densely packed than traditional 3528 RGB LEDs, and even remain capable of withstanding junction temperatures of up to 150℃ after going through such miniaturization. This allows more freedom for car module design while doing thermal simulations, and may be used in lamps in various locations on the car.

The emergence of ambient lights may also bring up revenue for LEDs used in decorative lights for car interiors with a CAGR of 10% during the forecast period 2018-2023. Currently, full-color LED ambient lighting products are being introduced into high-end car models in the OE market. As product specifications continue to develop and market demand rises, we will see these products find widespread use in mid-range cars in the future.

LEDinside 2019 Global Automotive LED Market Report-Passenger Car and Box Truck
Release Date:
EXCEL: May 31 and November 30, 2019
PDF: May 31, 2019
Language: Chinese / English

Chapter I. Automotive Lighting Market Trend Analysis
 1.1 Automotive Exterior Lighting Products Design and Trend
 Headlamp
 Tail Light
 Direction Light
 1.2 Automotive Interior Lighting Products Design and Trend
 Ambient Light
 Cluster
 Central Information Display
 Infotainment Display
 Head Up Display
 Electric Mirror Lamp
Chapter II. Global Automotive Lamp Players
 Global Top 10 & China Top 5 Players
 Revenues in 2017 & 2018
 2017 Automotive Lighting Revenue
 Revenue Distribution
 Country / Production Base
 Main Lamp Products
 LED Purchasing Decision Power
Chapter III. Global Automotive LED Manufacturer Strategies
 Global Top 10 Players
 Global Automotive Revenue in 2017 / 2018
 Production Base
 Major Automotive Product
 Exterior/Interior Proportion
 Market Development Strategies
 Revenue Performance of Other LED Manufacturers in 2018

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