In three to four years, replacing headlight bulbs may be largely a thing of the past.
Car makers are shifting to LED bulbs (which are non-replaceable) at a fairly rapid pace. In the future, a bulb failure will often require replacing the full headlight housing.
Already Chrysler’s latest model lineup has converted to LED bulbs with the exception of one model, said Steve Rogers of Lucas Lighting. He said of LEDs, “There is rapid adoption across the automotive industry … There are a few reasons for this. 1) the electrical efficiency of LED 2) Europe has laws in place now that do not allow halogen headlight bulbs in new vehicles 3) the higher replacement cost for these housings sold only at the vehicle dealer at this time.
Oracle’s Justin Hartenstein and Lucas estimate the full changeover to LED bulbs will be complete in the next three to four years in North America.
But Heise’s Jason Anderson believes the shift won’t encompass all vehicles as it will be much more expensive to replace a full housing. “I don’t think consumers will stand for it,” he noted.
A factory housing replacement can cost a consumer between $2 and $6K each. So Rogers believes the aftermarket will offer a cheaper alternative. “I believe this is the direction of the aftermarket. If you have a collision with a car and require a headlight replacement you will want some options, especially with a pair of factory housings costing $10,000. There will be a demand for an alternative. Also, the bulbs fail over time,” Rogers said.
He added, “The good news on the housing is that it is much easier to get DOT approval to offer an entire housing light source solution.”
Currently, automotive supply houses such as Morimoto offer housing replacements at about $500 to $1,200.
Most aftermarket lighting companies do not yet offer full headlight housing replacements with the exception of Oracle. It supplies an Oculus Headlight lineup for Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler/ Gladiator and a Mustang “Black Series.”
Hartenstein added that he expects to see a large increase in Matrix lighting as the US further adopts this technology.
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And the LED headlights are too bright.
With how many Chargers and other Chrysler products I see driving around with a patchwork of burned out LEDs on their tail lamp housing, I am quite skeptical of the feasibility of this. Just replacing a burned out headlight bulb could constitute an insurance claim!
Granted, OEM Led suppliers seems to be lightyears ahead of any aftermarket ones… anywhere from 194 bulbs to headlight bulbs, I seem to see a 5 year max life expectancy no matter what brand is purchased before the bulbs flicker and ultimately die. Not a big deal on a $100 set of LED headlights, but a huge huge huge deal on a non-serviceable set of headlight housing for $1500.
Now if someone could just figure out a way to make the plastic headlight lenses last more that 5 years before they turn yellow and flakey… it makes me a bunch of money re-clearcoating those for people, though!