The competition in LED lamp industry turns white hot, and automobile lighting becomes a new breakthrough

The competition in the LED light industry has become a new breakthrough. August 23, 2018 Source: In the future, as the penetration rate of LED in the automotive lighting field continues to rise, LED automotive lighting is expected by many manufacturers as a breakthrough in the current competitive situation.

Since the birth of the automobile, it has formed an "indissoluble bond" with light. Over the past 100 years, with the rapid development of technology, the functions of light given by science and technology have become increasingly rich. As the lighting lamps for driving at night, automobile lamps are indispensable.

As a new type of light source, LED has the advantages of high brightness, energy saving and high luminous purity. With the increasingly stable performance, it is a general trend to break through the middle and even high-end models to achieve the full popularity of passenger cars. Therefore, more and more automobile manufacturers regard LED light source as the first choice of automobile lamps.

Although LED has not entered the automotive lighting field for a long time, its growth rate is very fast. At present, LED lamps have gradually replaced halogen headlights and xenon headlights. In the future, as the penetration rate of LED in the automotive lighting field continues to rise, LED automotive lighting is expected by many manufacturers as a breakthrough in the current competitive situation.

According to the data of the LED Research Institute of High Industry and Research (GGII), the overall market of LED automotive lighting in China reached 24.5 billion yuan in 2017, with a year-on-year growth of 26%. With the gradual penetration of LED automotive lighting in mid tier models, LED automotive lighting will maintain a rapid growth trend in the future. GGII estimates that the market size of LED automotive lighting in China will reach 30.4 billion yuan in 2018, with a year-on-year growth of 26%; It is estimated that the market size of China's LED automotive lighting is expected to exceed 42.5 billion yuan by 2020.

Data source: High tech Industry Research LED Institute (GGII)

Ma Ziqi, senior analyst of the LED Research Institute of High Industry and Research, expressed optimism about the growth of LED automotive lighting. He believes that the automotive lighting market is still in the growth stage, and its growth is also the best compared with other emerging application markets, with huge market space in the future. However, the penetration rate of domestic LED headlights is far lower than the international level. In the future, with the gradual growth of domestic chip and packaging enterprises and the decline of LED lamp prices, it is expected that the penetration rate of LED headlights in China will reach 15% in 2020.

As we all know, automobile lights are mainly divided into headlights, tail lights, daytime running lights, fog lights and interior lighting according to their purposes. With the rapid decline of LED prices, LED has been widely used in the fields of daytime running lights, tail lights, interior lighting, etc. However, due to the relatively high technical threshold in the field of headlights, LED headlights are only widely used in high-end models.

Data source: High tech Industry Research LED Institute (GGII)

It is worth mentioning that although the penetration rate of domestic LED in headlights and fog lamps is low, there is little difference with the international level in the field of LED daytime running lamps and tail lamps. In addition, the penetration rate of LED in new energy vehicles is higher than that in traditional vehicles. In the future, China's new energy vehicle industry will show a rapid development trend, which will also effectively drive the penetration rate of LED in automotive lighting. In this context, domestic LED packaging manufacturers can seize this opportunity to highlight their own advantages and achieve overtaking at corners.

01

The car LED market in the mainland is in chaos, and Taiwan enterprises are moving to Europe and the United States

According to the data, at present, the car ownership in China has exceeded 200 million. It is predicted that in 2019, China will surpass the United States in car ownership and become the first in the world. Under the temptation of the broad market prospect, many gold diggers follow the trend and hope to seize the first opportunity in the exploration stage of this industry.

It is precisely because of the investment craze of "a swarm of bees" that led to the rapid white hot competition in the LED lamp industry. Among them, some enterprises that just want to "make a profit" only hype the concept of energy conservation after entering the industry, but they cannot achieve real energy conservation. In the face of fierce market competition, rising raw material costs, export obstacles and other pressures, these enterprises are willing to sacrifice quality as the price. It is precisely because these low-quality LED lamp products disrupt the market order, which makes consumers' trust in LED lamp products greatly reduced, leading to a vicious circle.

Faced with the chaos and price pressure in the mainland lamp market, some Taiwan LED enterprises that insist on quality have to abandon the mainland market and switch to the European and American automotive LED market. The withdrawal of Taiwan's LED enterprises gives more opportunities to mainland manufacturers, but the market chaos still needs to be eradicated. To this end, Chen Jiang, the deputy general manager of Donghao Optoelectronics, called for "as a country with the largest car ownership, the lamp market needs to develop healthily, so many packaging plants and lamp plants need to adhere to the product quality, and constantly optimize the products to give play to the real characteristics of LED lamps, so as to provide high-quality LED lamps for the market, so that consumers want to use, dare to use this type of product."

02

Quality assurance is the key to improve the penetration rate of aftermarket

I believe you have also noticed that at present, chip, package and module technologies for automotive lighting in China are firmly controlled by international giants such as Philips, Osram, Lumileds, Nippon Asiachem and Kerui, while few domestic enterprises can enter the front loading market, and more focus on the rear loading market.

The incremental space of the aftermarket mainly depends on the vehicle owners' demand for replacement of lamps. For many low-end cars, the brightness of the original lights is not high, which makes many car owners more eager to replace LED lights. In fact, the main driving force for car owners to replace LED lights is that they are now familiar with the characteristics of LED lights, rather than being influenced by the trend at the beginning. The main reason is that they really realize the characteristics of LED lights, such as high brightness, energy saving and high luminous purity.

However, as the current rear mounted lamp market has not yet formed a unified standard, and the quality of the existing rear mounted lamp products in the market is uneven, many car owners worry about the practicality, stability and safety of LED lights, thus affecting the replacement speed of LED lights to a certain extent.

Therefore, in Chen Jiang's opinion, "If domestic enterprises want to promote the further penetration of LED in the automotive lighting market, they need to increase their efforts in the layout of 4S stores and auto repair shops in the aftermarket, go deep into the market, so that car owners can use LED lights more conveniently. In addition, recognition of domestic LED products based on the middle and high-end light market still needs a certain process. In the front light market, light enterprises need to constantly layout in the LED automotive lighting market, focusing on the middle and low-end markets In order to make a breakthrough, especially in the field of new energy vehicles, we will provide high-quality and stable products, constantly accumulate experience and reputation, and let the market truly recognize the product quality of domestic LED enterprises. "

Although domestic LED manufacturers are rising stars in the light market, domestic packaging manufacturers have the advantages of product diversification, flexible design, and high cost performance. Of course, in the future, in the process of competing with international manufacturers, domestic packaging manufacturers also need to constantly improve the reliability of their products, strengthen the patent and certification of their products, so as to enhance their brand and product reputation.