Based in Lippstadt in western Germany, Hella claims to be the world’s leading supplier of front lighting.
The supplier does a yearly business of 6.8 billion dollars, 1 billion in North America. Hella’s main North American customers are GM and the U.S. operations of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, supplying mainly rear lighting. In the fiscal year ending in May 2016, automotive accounted for 76% of Hella’s total sales, with lighting – front, rear and interior – accounting for 3 billion dollars. In the truck sector, Hella supplies light-emitting-diode modules to DAF Trucks of the Netherlands.

Hella is also a supplier of radar sensor; the latter put its first-generation 24-GHz radar sensors into in 2005. The devices are ideal for applications. Claiming to be the market leader in sales of 24-GHz narrow-band radar technology, Hella has 15 OEM customers using the devices in 120 vehicles.

Hella launched its first-generation AFS system in 2006 utilizing xenon lighting. The supplier followed in 2013 with a more advanced system, this one using LEDs, on the Audi A8. In 2016, it introduced an 84-LED MultiBeam unit on the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Porsche Panamera. Jointly developed with Daimler, MultiBeam is designed with three rows of LEDs which distribute light through a lens. Doscher says MultiBeam is the first lighting system to feature variable low- and high-beam functionality.

In the electronics field, Doscher says Hella’s 77-GHz radar sensor technology initially will find use in the premium segment when introduced in 2019. In terms of 24-GHz, narrow-band technology, Hella is the global market leader, according to Doscher. In addition to Audi, it supplies BMW, Hyundai, Mazda and GM.

The executive notes radar is good at detecting objects, relative speed, distance and location. But it cannot see surfaces; it only sees points. Camera technology, on the other hand, can recognize surfaces and objects.

Hella forecasts long-range radar, currently installed in 7% of light vehicles sold globally, will increase to 20% in 2020; short and midrange radar, currently at 14%, will reach 32% in the next four years, while Lidar, at 3%, will grow to 10%.

Original Source : wardsauto.com

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