Innovative Interior Lighting From Hella

Hella is working with major car makers to develop new, innovative interior lighting concepts.

      Land Rover, SEAT, Volkswagen and Opel are among the companies developing interior lighting systems utilizing Hella LED technology that in many cases allows drivers to customize the interior appearance of their cars.

      “New Hella interior LED-lighting systems now can be found on a broad range of vehicles from compacts to luxury SUVs,” said Steffen Pietzonka, vice president of marketing for Hella’s lighting group. “Car makers are focusing more and more attention on interior lighting concepts that can enhance brand awareness and improve customer satisfaction levels.”

      Land Rover’s luxury Range Rover and Ranger Rover Sport SUVs give owners an interior lighting option with 10 different color choices ranging from “Spark Blue” to “Racing Red.”  LED light lines are integrated into the Range Rover’s doors and center console and are supplemented by white LED modules in the rear-footwell area of the vehicle.

      Range Rover’s ambient lighting system uses eight RGB (red, green and blue) LED modules to inject light into transmitters managed by a LIN (local interconnect network) to control brightness and create desired interior colors.

      The compact SEAT Leon has indirect lighting integrated into its door panels to accentuate the car’s interior design. A two-color Hella LED module illuminates the interior based on selected driver profiles from clear white for comfort and eco modes to intense red for sport mode.

      The color of Hella ’s dimmable ambient lighting for the VW Golf lineup depends on the vehicle model. Light strips in the doors of the Golf are white; blue in the Golf R, and red in the sporty Golf GTI.  High-precision manufacturing processes are required to produce the Golf’s one-millimeter-high contour line.

      Hella also has developed innovative interior lighting for the new Opel ADAM. Drivers can choose between eight different interior accent colors using an optional LED light package with colors ranging from “True Green” to “Opel Red” for the center console, map pockets and passenger-side footwell. Optional backlighting also is featured on the front of the ADAM’s glove compartment and a starlight sky can be integrated into the roof panel with a Hella light-control unit.

       “Our Ambient Light Control Module or ALCM combines two of Hella ‘s core areas of expertise – smart electronics and innovative lighting design,” notes Pietzonka. “A key feature of the ALCM is the fact that it functions completely independent of the vehicle’s central control unit.”

      Pietzonka points out that the trend toward the use of more and more LEDs in automobiles, beginning with headlamps and taillights, has gone unabated for nearly 20 years.  LEDs offer new design possibilities and provide car makers with opportunities to strengthen individual brand awareness.

      “With ambient interior LED lighting, auto makers are moving away from pure functionality to more aesthetic lighting applications,” he says. “A contributing factor has been new technology that has led to the development of illuminated lines of LED lighting rather than single points of LED light.”

       Hella ‘s interior lighting systems activity is headquartered in the southern German city of Wembach and is the center of expertise for interior lighting within the Hella Group. Approximately 90 development engineers work on creating new technologies for every vehicle segment.