F2010D002
Xenon Car Lighting as Safety Device
Title paper: "Xenon car lighting as safety device"
Key words: · Xenon car lighting · Accident analysis · Cost benefit · Awareness carbuyer and dealer
Subject group: D3 (active safety issues (e.g. braking systems, steering, suspension, stability, lighting)
Abstract: Xenon car lighting systems provide 3 times more light than systems based on halogen or LED technology. Introduced more than a decade ago, the Xenon take rates in new passenger cars are currently about 25% in Germany - which represents the pioneering market for Xenon - and 5-10% in other European member states. Xenon headlights promise important safety benefits because they improve the visibility in situations with limited sight (twilight and darkness). From accident analysis it was learned that cars with Xenon car lighting system are less involved in accidents during darkness or bad weather conditions or that accidents during those circumstances can be avoided if the car has a Xenon car lighting system on board. For the scenario of a ,,full switch" of e.g. the German car parc from Halogen to Xenon head lighting analysis predicts that more than 50% of the nighttime accidents on rural roads could be avoided ! A cost benefit analysis shows for EU 27 a net-benefit of Xenon of 1,075.5 million Euro and a benefit-cost ratio of 3.5, i.e. per invested Euro a benefit of 3.5 Euro is linked. In case of full penetration rate, the net-benefit is 10,890.5 million Euro and the benefit-cost ratio is 3.6 for EU 27. When the socio-economic profitability is compared to the eIMPACT systems, Xenon is one of the most promising systems. Only ESC shows a better performance from the socio-economic point of view. Given that Xenon is a mature technology it becomes obvious that quick wins for safety and efficiency can be realized by supporting the speeding up of the deployment. Nevertheless there is a low awareness of safety as one of xenon's advantages for car buyers and dealers however safety is one of the most important buying reasons! It comes out that car buyers' majority is feeling bad informed on xenon headlights, dealers welcome more sales information and advertising materials on xenon headlights. The interest is there: A majority of the new car buyers (around 60%) are willing to buy xenon headlights for their next car, however only a small percentage of these (around 15%) are willing to pay more than EUR 500,--.
This abstract is supplemented by a PDF, which can be viewed here.
Session: Active Safety Issues