Audi’s All-LED Headlamps Could Boost Electric Cars
Audi has outfitted the new R8 V10 sports car with all-LED headlamps, which consume about a quarter of the energy of halogen bulbs. According to an Audi press release posted on autobloggreen.com, the company expects LED’s to be eight times more efficient than halogen bulbs by 2018.
While it seems odd to introduce this development on a sports car that boasts an energy-inefficient ten cylinder engine capable of propelling the car to 196 miles an hour, the reason is probably cost.
Autobloggreen.com notes that LED headlamps were available as a $5,600 option on the original R8. The R8 V10, to be sold in Germany beginning in the spring of 2009, will cost nearly $200,000.
Still, the technology that Audi has developed to show off on its most high-end vehicle, will eventually trickle down to other vehicles and other manufacturers, and every conceivable increase in efficiency should be welcomed as we move toward electric vehicles.
Audi estimates that a vehicle running with soon-to-be-mandated (in Europe) daytime running lights consumes a constant 200 watts (this includes low beams, tail lights, and a license plate light. In contrast, Audi claims that only 15 watts is required to power their daytime headlamps.
- » See also: Homemade Wind Powered Electric Vehicle Generates Almost 1 KW
- » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.
Audi’s figures leave something to be desired, unfortunately. The energy figures above are not a direct comparison, since Audi has only specified the energy consumption of the daytime running lights, and not the high beams and tail lights. Regardless, it is a positive step to see LED technology making its way to vehicles.
The new Audi R8 V10 will be the first car in the world to feature LED lamps for the running lights, low and high beams, and indicators. As a percentage of energy consumption, it is safe to say that the LED lamps on the R8 will have little impact. On a more efficient electric vehicle with less available power, however, the LED lamps could provide a much more valuable energy savings.
Image Credit: denis g v at Flickr via a Creative Commons License
Source: autobloggreen.com
Thank God for rich people. They’re the only ones who can afford new technology, and that helps the rest of us by bootstrapping it till it becomes mainstream affordable. No one in their right mind would pay $5600 for the LED light option to save a few hundred watts of electricity (amounting to ~0.1 mpg by my calculations), but if it’s cast as a high-tech “new green thing” that no one else has that might be enough to get it started.
If this is the same R8 V10 they showed at the Chicago Auto Show last February, it’s hardly inefficient. That V10 is a turbo diesel that gets almost 30mpg on the highway, about the same as a V6 midsize car (Accord, Fusion, Aura).
It’s still inefficient because a V4/6 for vehicle this small would get 50mpg and still go faster than 100.
The V10 and expensive lights are just the fancy frills you need to charge $200k for a hunk of iron that costs $25k to build. Yes, thank God for rich people. Are there enough left these days for the car to succeed? We’ll see.
‘Going Electric’ is able to save costs and further bring the fuel costs down in the long run, which can cover stimulus investments. Positive and Comprehensive Thinking might be that crucial, I believe.