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tdelta1000
Active Member
NigelM
Recovering Member
I am surprised LED headlamps are not at least an option for the S. LED technology has come a long way in terms of light rendering, it's the future of lighting. If the S is the future for the automotive world why not include state of the art headlamps? I'd pay extra for an LED option, LED's are eco swanky, substantially more efficient and durable. I have enjoyed having them on the Leaf and am gradually upgrading my household lighting to LED. All the street lights in our neighborhood have been converted to LED. To me, LED has become a symbol of forward thinking, and it feels a little odd to take a step backward in that regard when going from the Leaf to the S.
LEDs only work for low beams at this point. You can't use xenons for high beams only (they light up too slow for flashing your lights at someone) so with LEDs you will get halogen high beams like the Leaf. No good, I'd rather have xenons for both. Also xenons take less headlamp real estate than LED+halogens as it's a single fixture vs. two separate ones. Switching xenons between low and high beams is done by shutter/focus change, not lighting a different bulb.
charliestyr
EVangelist
I'm pretty sure LED high beams have been possible for a while. The Audi full LED headlamps include the high beam.. A8 for example for sure... and I presume the R8, A6, A7 etc.
A8 LED Headlights Audi of America
(and that's been around for a couple of years now)
A8 LED Headlights Audi of America
(and that's been around for a couple of years now)
The Leaf is a combo bulb, I'm fine with that! The high beams hardly ever get used. Imagine if you had 296 miles to go in to the next charging station driving I5 from Ashland OR to Sacramento CA, and you could only go say 294 miles with xenon bulbs vs 298 with LED ... the math is a wild ass guess but you get my point. Why not have the most efficient and state of the art option for those of us who plan on stretching the limits and who otherwise simply think it's cool?
By the way, I replaced the halogen high beam bulbs in my LEAF with LEDs. They aren't as bright as the halogens (probably using 7W instead of 35W), but they act more like a flood light which is the way I tend to use high beams (to read street signs above the low beams when driving slowly to find something.) Also they work fine as a quick flash to tell someone that they left their brights on.
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Your power draw from lights isn't going to change your range. It would be on the order of a few hundred feet not even close to miles. And LEDs and HIDs (Xenon) use about the same amount of power, HIDs actually use a little less currently. The advantages lie in the amount of light (HIDs win) and how well the light is projected and the color of the light produced (LED win).
The other difference should be life. HIDs only last 2500 to 3000 hours when used optimally (and far less if they aren't used optimally) and then it's $50+ per bulb. LEDs should last a very long time.
No.
LEDs by themselves yes but supporting electronics will fail much sooner, especialy in evironment with temperature variations.
The LED brake lights in the Prius have lasted nine years so far and I can't recall a post to the group saying that their LED lights have died. The HID headlights lasted five and there are many posts saying that they lasted a far shorter time (not counting the bad bunch of bulbs Toyota shipped in 2006).
Mine gets a lot of use. So much that I replaced the crappy H9 halogens with a 55W xenon kit. Now the high beams are excellent, but I can't flash them any more. But seeing well in the dark is much more important for me anyway.
Ok, I wasn't aware of those. Does anybody know how they compare to 35W and 55W xenons ? Lumen output, projection quality etc. ?
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