“This marks a significant milestone in advanced automotive lighting applications,” says Steve Widdett, executive vice president for automotive sales at Hella Corporate Center USA. “The Cadillac Escalade Platinum will be the first high-volume vehicle in the world to be equipped with Hella’s full-LED headlamps.”
The fixtures will be made available through the General Motors parts supply network, and “the replacement procedure is not different” when compared to standard lighting repairs, according to Hella Product Engineering Specialist Siegfried “Siggi” Hetz. “There’s one plug from the vehicle harness to the headlamp,” he tells ABRN. “There’s no difference there at all.”
“Regarding service/replacement units, we’re still finalizing our plans on how that will work specifically,” reports Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell. “Obviously, these are quite a bit more expensive than conventional lights, or Xenon HIDs. However, Cadillac will see to it that the consumer will not notice much of a difference in service,” he says.
“First of all, LEDs have a greatly longer operating life than any other type of lighting. So the incidence of replacement due to age/lifespan will be greatly less frequent,” Caldwell explains. “Also, in the case of fender-benders, Cadillac will likely price the replacement parts in such a way that they are generally similar to the HIDs used on many luxury cars today. That’s not all settled exactly at this point and we don’t have numbers to share – but generally speaking we will seek to make the replacement cost somewhat comparable to other luxury cars already in the market,” he says.
“This is the first time LEDs have been used for ‘full-function’ forward lighting on an SUV, and one of the very first uses in any kind of vehicle,” notes Caldwell, who cites a couple of foreign-produced marques with a low-beam application and plans to adopt light-emitting diodes to brights in the future.
“In any case, this is extremely new technology, if not first in the world,” Caldwell continues. “This has been an R&D project for many, many years, suffice it to say – and LEDs are now found in many places on luxury cars already, often used in interior lighting, brake lamps, etc. Heck, they are even used on Christmas lights these days! The key here is using them for headlamps – which is unusual,” he points out.
“Used previously only on concept vehicles or exotic sports cars, LED headlamps mark another step in Cadillac’s application of advanced lighting technology and design,” says Jim Taylor, Cadillac general manager.
“LED headlamps emit a greatly more precise light pattern, while emulating the characteristics of natural daylight much more closely than traditional auto lighting,” he notes. “LEDs are environmentally friendly, using much less power and lasting more than 20 times longer than traditional halogen bulbs.” The LED headlamps will be an enhancement added to the Escalade Platinum this summer, shortly after production of the 2008 Platinum model itself begins in the spring.
The daylight-like light emitted by the LEDs enhances perception when driving during twilight and darkness while improving overall driver comfort and safety, according to Widdett.
“Hella is using newly developed multi-chip LEDs as light sources for low- and high-beam,” he explains. “LED technology makes new lighting functions possible, opening up new, innovative styling and differentiation potential for vehicle manufacturers.”
“Free-form glass projection lenses are being used for the very first time anywhere in the world,” says Widdett. “Thanks to their individual optical design, each area of the lens is responsible for a certain part of the light distribution on the road. Of the seven glass lenses used in a headlamp overall, only two are completely identical, all the others are of different shape.”
A high-performance ventilator, developed specially for the particularly demanding automotive environment, addresses thermal management in the headlamp and supplies active cooling and ventilation of the LED chips.
The low-beam light section of the headlamp is generated by five optical units arranged underneath one another and situated at the outer edge of the headlamp housing. The low-beam light is responsible for close-range illumination in front of the vehicle. The daytime running function is achieved by dimming the same five optical units of the low beam, Widdett says.
The remaining two identical optical units in the headlamp are responsible for high-beam light and are situated at the inner edge of the headlamp housing. High-beam light illuminates upward and straight-ahead of the vehicle to maximize visibility, he reports.
Also utilizing LED-technology, position lights are placed vertically between the low beam and the side marker, which is located on the very outer edge of the headlamp. In the Escalade Platinum, direction indicators and fog lamps are mounted in the lower area of the bumper.
The Platinum edition of the Escalade adds other attractive features elsewhere on the vehicle, according to Caldwell, such as a hand-cut-and-sewn leather interior, DVD screens in the front seat headrests and Magnetic Ride Control suspension, plus unique wheels, carpets and headliners. “It’s a super-luxury version of Escalade, to put in plainly,” he points out.
Taylor touts GM’s Magnetic Ride Control, originally developed for performance vehicles such as the STS sedan, XLR Roadster and Chevrolet’s legendary Corvette, as “the world’s fastest-reacting suspension system” able to provide the Platinum with more precise body motion control. It’s a real-time damping system – “reading” the road in 1-milisecond intervals – replacing conventional mechanical-valve shocks with electronically controlled shocks filled with a synthetic fluid containing minute iron particles. Under the presence of a magnetic charge, the iron particles align to provide almost instantaneous damping resistance, he says.
