Adaptive LED headlights

I'm close to deciding on my final spec now and should be popping in to my local dealer to place the order later this week. One thing I'm yet to decide on is whether to tick the Adaptive LED Headlights option and I've got a couple of questions,

1. Do LED headlights offer any significant range advantage over the standard lights or is it negligable ? I know this is a hard question to answer but is anyone able to estimate what the difference in range would be if you drove from full charge to zero with the lights on for the two options ?

2. What does the 'Adaptive' bit actually mean ? I presumed just turning into corners (which I'm not that bothered about). If you try google it there is an interesting video on the new adaptive LED lights for the 7 series which are very trick indeed but I'm guessing the i3 LEDs don't do this ?

http://youtu.be/-dvPZ3H1Vm4

Plug said:

1. Do LED headlights offer any significant range advantage over the standard lights or is it negligable ? I know this is a hard question to answer but is anyone able to estimate what the difference in range would be if you drove from full charge to zero with the lights on for the two options ?

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I'll take a stab at it.

A standard H7 low beam headlight bulb is 55W. 110W for two. The LED headlamps on Leaf draw 50W for two on low beam. I'm also going to assume the non-led version doesn't use LEDs for any of the front lights. The rears are always LED. Assume LEDs there save another 10W

So the LED headlamp option saves about 70W. Low voltage power for the headlights comes from a DC to DC converter. For this very rough estimate, lets assume that the DC-DC converter operates at 93% efficiency. The real one might be a little better.

Total power savings from the Pack is 75W.


Assume you drive the car for three hours with the lights on and that uses up the entire range. 75W * 3 hours is 225W hours. The usable portion of the battery pack is 18,500 W-hours. Range difference is about 1.2% or about one mile of real range.


If the high beams are LED (they aren't on LEAF) power savings on high beam is about double. The car is probably driving faster so they won't be on for as long. Perhaps 2 hours at the most. Real range difference will be close to the same.

Good answer. Thanks a lot for taking the time to go through the numbers.

I asked my local dealer about the 'adaptive' features and he wasn't too sure so I've ping'd BMW an email. I'll post again if I get any useful info back.

Plug said:

I'm close to deciding on my final spec now and should be popping in to my local dealer to place the order later this week. One thing I'm yet to decide on is whether to tick the Adaptive LED Headlights option and I've got a couple of questions,

1. Do LED headlights offer any significant range advantage over the standard lights or is it negligable ? I know this is a hard question to answer but is anyone able to estimate what the difference in range would be if you drove from full charge to zero with the lights on for the two options ?

2. What does the 'Adaptive' bit actually mean ? I presumed just turning into corners (which I'm not that bothered about). If you try google it there is an interesting video on the new adaptive LED lights for the 7 series which are very trick indeed but I'm guessing the i3 LEDs don't do this ?

http://youtu.be/-dvPZ3H1Vm4

Click to expand...

My opinion get the LED headlights for the i3.
I drove the Leaf before, turning on the fog lamps eats roughly 0.1kw per hr.
You can see an immediate increase on consumption on the display.
Which is why Nissan gave every Leaf LED headlights initially.
Again for most Prius and Lexus hybrids LED headlights are available.

Pt
- Less energy consumption - for each hr of driving in the i3 with non LED headlights on, expect to lose an extra km.
- LED headlights are whiter and illuminate better.
- It should hv be standard on the i3.

My numbers are not too scientific ... but are my actual observations from driving the Leaf.
Hope it helps.

lordelectric said:

Hope it helps.

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Yes thanks, there's plenty of us who've never owned an EV before so always good to get the opinion/experience of those who have.

Reply from BMW said....

For the option 5A2, Adaptive LED Headlights, the LED lights improve visibility by following steering angle of the front wheels, giving better illumination ahead of the road through corners. The Adaptive headlights are not active when the car is reversing or when the car is stationary and turned to the offside, to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic.

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The adaptive lights would be quite useful if you do a lot of nighttime driving and in darker roads. Where I live, there aren't too many street lights going up the canyon, so these road conditions. Especially if you have wildlife such as deers roaming.

How do the beams move? With electric motors? So there's more consumption

ecoangel said:

How do the beams move? With electric motors? So there's more consumption

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I'm not sure if the i3 is the same as other LED headlamps as I can't find anywhere where it mentions how many LED's the i3 lights use. But normally say there are 7 LED's they are arranged in such a way that when all 7 are on that is Max beam pattern and if something is detected in the road ahead then LED's are switched off so bits of beam are extinguished..... so there aren't any moving parts and the shape of the beam can react very quickly. They can use inputs from all sorts of different sources such as the adaptive cruise control radar and Sat Nav ..... even Google earth!

ecoangel said:

How do the beams move? With electric motors? So there's more consumption

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One of the promotional videos shows the light move within the housing.

But more consumption? Well theoretically yes, but come on, you're not serious?

Atommad said:

ecoangel said:

How do the beams move? With electric motors? So there's more consumption

Click to expand...

One of the promotional videos shows the light move within the housing.

But more consumption? Well theoretically yes, but come on, you're not serious?

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Not a problem in say Texas USA with so few corners (curves) - Probably minimal Watts, but, you never know, it could mean a 400m walk home in the rain!

Hi,

Now there are a few more i3's on the road can anyone comment on the effectiveness of the adaptive LED headlight option and how it functions.
It seems rather vague on the matter in the brochure.

My impression from a fairly long night drive was - LED "adaptive" dipped beam has an excellent range and pattern, better than the adaptive lights on my Lexus at picking up unlit pedestrians etc near the kerb. I couldn't work out it the lights moved or not - but the overall effect on a winding road was very reassuring.

The halogen main beams were OK but not as powerful as the Lexus - I would change them for brighter and less power-hungry LED bulbs if they ever become available.

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for the feedback, sounds like they are worth having. Shame the main beams are halogen though. Do they do the 'auto dip' thing that some cars feature, i cant find a reference to it so i doubt it. I am afraid i have got used to the convenience!

No auto-dip, even with the adaptive LEDs, sadly.

I still can't detect any change in the beam as I drive along. I really don't know what the "adaptive" part of the lights means. The LEDs look nice though. There's a thread somewhere showing the whiter bulbs I put in the main beams to match the LEDs - looks much better.

AndyW said:

I really don't know what the "adaptive" part of the lights means.

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I've had several models where the beam will sweep left or right slightly in order to better illuminate the road in a curve, and the auto high-beam on my current X5 is quite nice, dipping the the lights when traffic is sensed by the camera. These new Adaptive LED lights take both of these features one step further, allowing independent actuation of each beam (left-low, left-high, right-high, and right-low). The front facing camera(s) will scan the road and traffic and direct the beams around other drivers to maintain maximum visibility by providing as much light as possible.

Since I'm waiting on the i3, I cannot speak to whether or not the feature is always on or if it must be enabled. In previous/current vehicles, the sweep is always on. In my X5, the auto high beam function is enabled by either pushing or pulling the stalk (can't remember). When it's on a symbol (headlight w/ A) is illuminated between the gauges.

Here's a nice video of the Adaptive LED system on a 7 series.
http://youtu.be/kZ1NOzIbadk

e52fanatic said:

AndyW said:

I really don't know what the "adaptive" part of the lights means.

Click to expand...

I've had several models where the beam will sweep left or right slightly in order to better illuminate the road in a curve, and the auto high-beam on my current X5 is quite nice, dipping the the lights when traffic is sensed by the camera. These new Adaptive LED lights take both of these features one step further, allowing independent actuation of each beam (left-low, left-high, right-high, and right-low). The front facing camera(s) will scan the road and traffic and direct the beams around other drivers to maintain maximum visibility by providing as much light as possible.

Since I'm waiting on the i3, I cannot speak to whether or not the feature is always on or if it must be enabled. In previous/current vehicles, the sweep is always on. In my X5, the auto high beam function is enabled by either pushing or pulling the stalk (can't remember). When it's on a symbol (headlight w/ A) is illuminated between the gauges.

Here's a nice video of the Adaptive LED system on a 7 series.
http://youtu.be/kZ1NOzIbadk

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To add to this - in our X5 (2012), you can disable the "High Beam Assistant" in iDrive - I believe it's under Lighting. If it's disabled, pushing forward on the stalk manually toggles between high/low beams. If enabled, pushing forward on the stalk cycles the High Beam Assistant on/off.

Also, for the sweep to function (at least on ours), the headlight switch has to be in the automatic mode. Maybe the i3 is similar? The movement should be noticeable, especially on a twisty road.

e52fanatic said:

Here's a nice video of the Adaptive LED system on a 7 series.
http://youtu.be/kZ1NOzIbadk

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heh, check the OP ;-)

There's a good thread about this elsewhere, personally I think Palleraa's info is the most convincing I've read although it's very hard to tell. I've been driving my i3 for a month now and using the LED's daily on twisty rural roads and if they do swivel from side to side into corners it's not at all obvious.

My wife had a SEAT Ibiza with optional adaptive Xenons which were single units for both dip and main. They were excellent but the swivelling functionality was almost imperceptible on dip, then really came into its own on main. Pity the i3 has a separate non LED non-adaptive main beam, if my understanding is correct, the simpler SEAT on a much more modest car was great.

Plug said:

e52fanatic said:

Here's a nice video of the Adaptive LED system on a 7 series.
http://youtu.be/kZ1NOzIbadk

Click to expand...

heh, check the OP ;-)

There's a good thread about this elsewhere, personally I think Palleraa's info is the most convincing I've read although it's very hard to tell. I've been driving my i3 for a month now and using the LED's daily on twisty rural roads and if they do swivel from side to side into corners it's not at all obvious.

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That does sound like a good description. The single projector assembly on the i3 (even with an array of dynamic LEDs) likely does not have the same beam splitting abilities of the dual projectors on the standard line of BMW models with Active LED.