As the auto industry starts to adopt LED lights in more mainstream vehicles, we’ll start to see cars featuring new and exciting headlight designs such as those seen on the Audi R8 and Aston Martin Rapide. Consumers will also benefit from features such as the compact size and weight, low cost, low power usage, long life and powerful performance of LEDs, so we have to wonder why it’s taken the major carmakers so long to adopt the technology.

Finally, things are starting to change. The breakthrough was making them bright enough for use in car headlights and at a reasonable cost, and now automotive lighting manufacturers are working to bring LED headlights to mainstream cars. We’re starting to see more car designers incorporating the unique look of LEDs in their latest concept sketches. Lexus will equip its flagship LS with new LED lights for the 2007 model year, and Audi has used LEDs for its daytime running lights in the A8 and S6 sedans.

Currently, using LEDs for car headlights is an expensive option with prices estimated at eight times the amount of already expensive high-intensity discharge lights. Designers will probably benefit the most by using LEDs because instead of a single light cluster, LEDs can be dispersed into interesting patterns to beautify the front end of a vehicle.