In China, competition is fierce. Non-Chinese automakers are losing market share, and are launching new cars with totally new designs and approaches to entice customers back. They take risks and put a lot of effort into design. OLED technology for the Nissan N7 and the lit bumper on the Audi A5, the lit grille on the Mercedes CLA and Mazda EZ60—these are just a few of many examples.
Chinese automakers are competing on technology and price, offering vehicles with very high technical content and really low price. As an example, the Nio Firefly is priced below €15,000, and it has full-LED headlamps and rear lamps, lit logos, and RGB interior lighting.
For this price, the design needs to be simple. It is also what we see with all competitors: efficient yet nice design. BYD is another good example, with a rear lit logo on all their new vehicles, and really slick DRL design with highly efficient optical system.
Lit logos are a real trend for most Chinese brands. In China there is no regulatory constraint on lights displayed on a parked car, so automakers can put white-lit logos on the rear, and can design front lit logos without regard to dimensional separation from the front position lamps.
Turquoise light for autonomous driving indicators seems to be coming, even though turquoise light is not yet specified in the relevant regulation, GB-4785. Li Auto, Xpeng, and BYD have A.D. indicators on side mirrors:
Three main innovations were presented at supplier booths and on some of the show cars:
- Projection with DLP on the Aito M8 (by Huawei), Changan C07 (by Marelli), and Smart 5 (by Appotronics); or with microLED on the Nio ET9 (25-kpx from Marelli), and Xingyu’s 40-kilopixel proposal
- Displays: just a few new displays on vehicles, with pitch values from 0.1 to 2 mm; monochrome and RGB
- Grills and Lit bumpers: similar to displays, just a few new cars with lit grill and lit bumpers.
Because time-to-market is key and cost is crucial, lit grilles, bumpers, and displays seem limited to premium vehicles and brands wanting to put very high-tech emphasis and content in exterior design or V2X. These trends are not coming to mainstream cars for the moment.
