LED manufacturers are branching into the niche application markets as the competition in their industry expands. Currently, entering the automotive LED market is regarded as a blue ocean strategy because the market has relatively few contestants and allows for higher pricing. According to the latest Gold Member Report – 2016 LED Market Demand and Supply Analysis by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, the worldwide market value of exterior automotive LEDs for 2015 is expected to reach US$1.21 billion. This figure is projected reach US$2.29 billion in 2020, translating to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% during the 2015~2020 period. Additionally, the market value of standard-power LEDs is gradually declining in contrast to the rapidly rising market value of high-power LEDs. In the future, automotive LED application will take off in the high-power LED market.
Exterior automotive include directional signals, fog lights, headlights (high/low beams) and position lights. The volume of high-power LEDs used for this application has been growing each year, according to LEDinside Research Manager Duff Lu. The annual volume increases have also beaten the annual declines in high-power LED prices, thus helping to drive the market value of exterior automotive LEDs to grow at a CAGR of over 8% from 2015 through 2020. Lu added that the penetration of LED products in the exterior automotive market is currently less than 15%, so the growth potential is huge. High/low beam LEDs in particular will see the highest growth in market value, with CAGR reaching 11% during the 2015~2020 period.
Based on LEDinside’s estimates, the total LED volume used in the exterior automotive application worldwide has reached 2.79 billion pieces this year and will grow to 3.67 billion pieces in 2020. From 2015 through 2020, the LED volume used in headlights and position lights will grow by a CAGR of over 15%. During the same forecast period, high/low beam LEDs will have the highest CAGR, reaching 23%.
Interior automotive LEDs to see negative growth as applications of standard LEDs contracts
As for interior automotive LEDs, most products on the market still use standard-power LEDs. With the average sales prices of standard-power LEDs in a tailspin, the worldwide market value of interior automotive LEDs is expected to suffer negative growth in the next five years. LEDinside estimates that the market value will reach US$605 million this year but will later drop to US$603 million by 2020.
The only exception to this downtrend is LEDs for automotive instrument cluster. The market value of this application continues to grow against headwinds as the traditional mechanical instruments on the cluster are being replaced by LED instrument panels. The average size of these panels is also expanding, so more LEDs are needed. LEDinside therefore projects the CAGR of this market from 2015 through 2020 to be around 3%
