It is said that converting halogen lamps to LED without adding lenses is like murder, but in the past two years, original lens-less LED headlights have become more and more popular, including the 100,000-level Lavida, Lingpai, and Sylphy, and the 200,000 to 300,000-level Accord, Rongfang, and X-Trail, Crown Road, Highlander, MODEL 3, Mercedes-Benz E and GLC priced at 40 to 500 RMB are all used.
Who takes the lead? Probably Honda.
In 2016, Honda introduced a set of wing-shaped reflective LED headlights on the 10th generation Civic and 9.5th generation Accord as the latest family design language at the time, and it was extended to most current Honda cars (although the headlights of the 11th generation Civic were replaced with The style is improved but still no lens is added).
At that time, except for the high-end Accord and the 6.5-generation 3 Series with scoop lights, mainstream models basically had halogen lights, xenon lights and lens LED lights. But starting in 2018, reflective LED headlights have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, especially for older models with halogen lamps. Most of the models have been replaced with reflective LED lamps. The Mercedes-Benz GLC and E-Class originally had lenses, but after the facelift, they were replaced with reflective headlights.
Current E-class headlights
Old E-class headlights
Are LEDs with lenses all high-end lights?
For the same car with different headlights, the ones with lenses are basically better than those without lenses. Take the Audi A4 as an example. There are a total of 3 headlights in the whole series. The high-end version has two pairs of lamp heads with lenses, which supports follow-up steering. Its appearance and actual lighting effect are the first echelon in the same level. Domestic A4L must be equipped with top-end models. have. The US IIHS rated it GOOD.
Other A4Ls use mid-range headlights. The inner high beam has no lens and does not have follow-up steering. However, the appearance is only one inner lens difference from the high-end version. There is not much difference in appearance and the lighting effect is acceptable. The US IIHS rated it as ACCEPTABLE.
The lowest-end headlights don’t even have lenses. The daytime running lights are just a perfunctory lamp bead, which is comparable to Toyota’s rice-grain brake lights. The turn signals are still halogen bulbs. The appearance has no Audi charm, and the lighting effect is not up to standard. It’s simply It's neither good-looking nor useful, it's just a fake product. This lamp is mainly used on European and American low-end cars and is not available in China. The US IIHS rated it as MARGINAL.
It can be seen that for the A4, only the most high-end matrix headlights are worthy of the name of the light factory, and the mid-to-low-end models used in mass-market models are very average.
This is not just the A4, but also other Audi models (such as A6, Q5, Q3, A3), Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, Hyundai/Kia mainstream models. However, these models use lens lights as high-end lights and reflector lights as low-end lights. It is natural that high-end lights are better than low-end lights. It cannot directly mean that reflective LEDs are definitely inferior to lens-type ones.
Reflective LEDs also have counterattack cases
Volvo's Thor's Hammer headlights are all reflective LEDs, but the actual lighting effect is excellent, and they are also supplemented by follow-up steering and static steering auxiliary lighting. Except for the XC90's headlights, which were excellent, all other models were excellent.
S60 headlight test results
The BMW 3 Series, which is priced similarly to the S60, uses lens headlights. However, both the range and brightness of the low and high beams are far from meeting the American test standards, and only received POOR (poor). Among the LED headlights of cars of the same class, those with lenses can actually do better than those without lenses. Even if playing with lights is not BMW's strong point, such a scummy performance is below the level of a first-tier luxury brand.
3 Series headlight ratings
Among ordinary brands, the reflective LED headlights of Civic, Accord, and X-Trail are also good, and they have all received excellent ratings, which are better than the lens-type LEDs of some competing products. After all, the lens headlights of some cars are really not up to par. Like the one in the picture below, the low beam is far from up to standard, and the high beam is even more lonely. Driving a car like this in a place without street lights would definitely make you feel uneasy.
Actual shot of Accord’s high beam lights on the road at night
Of course, there are also many reflective LED headlights that are positioned as low-profile lights, leaving less budget for the headlights, and the lighting effect is not flattering, and some are even worse than halogen lights.
It can be seen that the structure of the headlights does not have a decisive difference in the actual lighting effect. The key depends on whether the manufacturer is willing to make sacrifices in this aspect.
