"We plan to step up our headlamp business and increase our sales in the automotive business as a whole to more than four times the current level by the year 2015." So says Mr. Yasuhiro Nieda, executive director in charge of the Corporate Strategy Department at Harison Toshiba Lighting Corp. His company holds a 40% share of the global market for the wedge base lamps (Fig.1) used in meters and automotive exteriors, as well as an 80% share of the global market for the cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) (Fig.2) that are used in the backlights of liquid crystal displays in automotive navigation systems. Mr. Nieda described a growth strategy for the company's automotive light source business that centers on mass production of HID lamps and entry into the LED headlamp business. We interviewed Mr. Nieda about the market environment for headlamps and his company's business strategy.
(Interview conducted by Yasuki Shiraishi of TechnoAssociates, Inc.)

Due to the different light sources used in headlamps, there are halogen lamps and HID lamps. And the top-end model of the Toyota Lexus that came out in 2007 was equipped with LED headlamps. How do you perceive the headlamp market of the future?

　First of all, the penetration rate for HID lamps in the global market is currently around 10 to 15%. We expect that this ratio will increase further and that progress will continue to be made in the switch from halogen lamps to HID lamps. The light source for headlamps first switched from incandescent lamps to halogen lamps. That change took about 15 years. I think the transition that is currently underway from halogen to HID will also take about 15 years. HID lamps began being mass produced in 1997, which is 10 years ago now. If we look at it this way, we can project that the adoption of HID will have made considerable progress by around 2015.

What is your approach regarding HID lamps?

　The key to capturing the HID market will be making the lamps mercury-free. The present HID lamps have mercury inside. As long as they contain this kind of hazardous substance, it will be difficult to expand the market for HID lamps. At Harison, we started working early on to make HID lamps mercury-free, and we are developing the necessary technology. We have collaborated with the government and with automobile manufacturers, for example, and taken an active role in creating international standards. At the present, we are nearly finished developing the technology necessary for commercializing the headlamps (Fig.3). We plan to begin mass production sometime in the coming year, and we intend to develop HID into one of our flagship products.

Next, I would like to ask you about LED headlamps. How do you perceive the rise of that market?

　It will be around 2015 when the penetration rate of LED headlamps reaches about 10%. When LEDs are used in headlamps, the luminous intensity per chip in their current state is insufficient, so the lamps must be made using integrated groups of LEDs known as arrays. As a result, the price is extremely high, which limits the market in which LED headlamps can be adopted. There are also some issues with regard to maintenance. With headlamps that use LED arrays, some coordination is required on the policy front, such as deciding how many LEDs can burn out before it is necessary to replace the lamp, and whether the cost for that replacement should be borne by the consumer or the manufacturer. Nevertheless, we expect the full-fledged spread of LED headlamps to get underway around 2015.

What are the main differences between LED headlamps and conventional headlamps?

　The way that LED headlamps differ most from halogen lamps and HID lamps is that with LED headlamps, you have to configure the LEDs inside an optical system to produce the light distribution. LEDs can be configured or designed in a variety of different ways. There is no established formula. Also, from the standpoint of headlamp design, it is very important to provide feedback regarding what characteristics and specifications are required from the LEDs for that particular device. In the development of LED headlamps, we are able to take full advantage of the technology and expertise our company has built up as a light source manufacturer (Fig.4, 5).

Harison Toshiba Lighting has a large share of the wedge base lamp market. How do you plan to approach this business segment?

　We are working on reducing costs in order to bolster our cost competitiveness. Our company has concentrated our wedge base lamp manufacturing at a specialized factory in Japan and a site in China, and engaging in concentrated manufacturing has enabled us to achieve a cost reduction. In the meantime, we must also respond to requests for improvements like enhanced reliability and extended operating life. In order to do that, we have placed our engineering unit here in Japan, and we've established a framework in which we conduct development and test production here, and then when we reach the mass manufacturing stage we relegate the work to the specialized plants. In terms of our product lineup, we are increasing the types of large, exterior-use lamps and broadening the color selection. In addition to automobiles, we are also enhancing our lineup for two-wheel vehicles. As a result of these efforts, our share is rising. In the long term as well, we think that we will continue to see roughly a few percent of growth per year.

Please tell us about the particular areas you plan to focus on and what your objectives are.

　In the field of automotive light sources, the area that we will continue putting most of our effort into is headlamps. Within that, we will focus on HID and LED. The unit price for HID is 10 times as much as that of halogen lamps, and the HID market will emerge sooner than that of LED headlamps, so we have high expectations for HID. We see LED headlamps as the product that will ultimately be the key to the headlamp market. As far as our business development framework is concerned, we have set up separate divisions specializing in HID and LED, respectively. Our plan is to increase our sales in the automotive business as a whole to more than four times the current level by the year 2015.