After decades of near stagnation, automotive lighting has undergone spectacular developments in recent years. Appearing in 1991 on the third generation of BMW 7 Series, xenon headlights never really made a breakthrough. They remained rather reserved for fairly high-end models. Quite the opposite of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes in French, which have gradually become more popular since the 2010s. Even a basic Dacia Sandero now uses this technology for its low beam headlights, rear headlights and even daytime running lights. Less energy intensive than xenon or traditional halogen, LEDs are also much more compact. They thus make it possible to imagine ever more elaborate light signatures. On some vehicles, there are even dozens of them, which can be turned off or on individually. The beam can thus be modified depending on the conditions. For those who drive a lot at night, this progress is really appreciable… even if the motorists opposite will not be of the same opinion. But be careful: in the event of an accident or breakdown, the replacement bill for these high-tech lenses can reach ever higher heights.
LED lights have become a problem for our eyes on the road, Europe urged to act
An increase of 70% in 5 years
The SRA (Automotive Safety and Repairs), an association to which all French insurance companies belong, brought together several experts to discuss this issue. The subject is indeed important for its members, since it threatens to explode compensation costs. For motorists, this could result in higher insurance premiums. Not to mention the ever more prohibitive bills to pay if a failure were to occur outside of warranty or if the “glass breakage” option was not taken out. Nardjesse Bensmina, “data scientist” to the SRA, noted that the cost of front optical units increased by 70% between 2019 and the first nine months of 2024. It went from €486 on average to €827 including tax. Front lights, which include various lights not integrated into the headlights, such as certain daytime running lights or turn signals (excluding fog lights), increased by 65%, while rear lights increased by 70%. This is much more than other spare parts, which have already suffered an inflation of 39%.
Is the worst yet to come?
This increase is all the more worrying as it is based on a sample of around two million annual expert reports, with vehicles of very varied ages. If we focus only on models less than two years old, which only represented 9% of claims, the average cost of optics increases from €827 to €1,094. For those who are 4 to 5 years old, the bill already reaches €930. A real abyss compared to cars 15 years old and over, for which the bill does not exceed €465. However, the proportion of the most recent vehicles will only increase over the years, as the vehicle fleet is renewed. This led Bruno Deng, technical studies manager at the SRA, to use a phrase that will come back like a leitmotif: “The worst is yet to come”. No less than 300,000 lenses are replaced each year by insurance companies, for whom this expense item could therefore increase colossally.
When style comes before repair cost
These ever-increasing costs can be explained in different ways. We can obviously assume that manufacturers are making a larger margin than before on spare parts. But lighting has also become much more complex. There are still significant differences from one model to another, and sometimes even within the same range. when several technologies are offered… which is, however, becoming increasingly rare. On the second generation Peugeot 208 in phase 1, the replacement bill for the unit could thus range from €531, for the basic halogen headlights, to €1,604 for full LED lighting, including €778 for the optics. “Eco LED”, which retains halogen for the indicators.
This clearly illustrates the additional cost generated by diodes. However, they tend to appear in increasing numbers, and not only to become more efficient. It is often the style that takes precedence, with lighting signatures that are ever more elaborate and complex… and therefore ever more expensive. Even if its price has already fallen significantly since the publication of a previous SRA study, the Hyundai Kona’s light strip still costs more than €5,941 alone. We are talking here about an element that is particularly vulnerable in the event of a frontal collision, and which tends to become more and more frequent on recent vehicles… Not to mention illuminated grilles, like that of the new Renault 4, or the illuminated logos authorized since little in Europe.
Not so eco-friendly LEDs
Rodolphe Pouvreau, director of the SRA, calls on manufacturers to be more reasonable in this area. “Do consumers today really expect cars that look like Christmas trees? Even if the period is conducive to this, I am not sure that it will be interesting all year round”he quips! The latest study by his association also reminds us that the problem is not only economic. While they have a virtuous image because of their lower energy consumption, diode headlights turn out to be quite polluting to produce. The fault, in particular, is all the electronics necessary for their “piloting” and the extensive use of plastic. The SRA thus estimates the annual carbon footprint of replacing LED optics at 13,500 tonnes of CO2 in France, or 62 million kilometers in a thermal car. or 7,627 round trips from Paris to New York by plane! Taken as an example, a Mercedes EQA AMG Line headlight includes numerous materials, the extraction of which is sometimes polluting, and parts from various suppliers, which must travel a total of more than 1,948 km during the manufacturing process. This ultimately results in a significant “carbon footprint”, with more than 48 kg of CO2 equivalent for the production of a single optical unit.
Fairly rare repairs
The SRA also highlights the fact that these headlights have become less repairable than before. Moreover, in 91% of cases, it is a replacement that is decided by the insurance companies, most often with a new one. But two other speakers nevertheless came to qualify this rather gloomy observation. The first of them, Nicolas Hamelin, is a bodywork-painting engineer at CESVI France, a training and technical research center applied to the field of automobile insurance. He mentioned the development of repair kits and 3D printing, which can help reduce the bill. While the headlight of a Toyota Prius 5 costs more than €1,900 excluding taxes, it is possible to limit the bill to €111 by only changing the interior casing which supports the bulbs. However, this solution is not possible if the damage is too severe, which frequently happens in the event of an accident. Not all garages are sufficiently trained either, and the unavailability of certain builder kits can further complicate things. Without forgetting possible disagreements between the expert and the repairer.
The reuse part as a ray of hope?
However, there is another alternative which tends to develop: that of the reused part. One of the specialists in this activity, Back2Car, has developed new techniques for renovating headlights that were previously thrown away. It plans to go even further in 2025 by launching a study on on-board optical technology, in order to try to apply methods already used to renovate beams. This could help put more second-hand parts on the market, with a bill reduced by around 70% compared to new on fairly recent headlights. On a first generation Peugeot 3008, the price of the part goes from €478.72 with the manufacturer to €171 in the Reman range from Back2car, while retaining a two-year warranty. But, for the moment, only 4.9% of replaced optics come from reuse…
