"The pace of innovation in the automotive industry lighting segment is rapid, and software is strengthening this dynamic," explained Helmut Matschi, member of the Continental Executive Board. "While conventional lighting expertise remains important to our customers, the addition of electronics to enable new light functions is taking on increased significance. The joint venture would systematically combine these two areas and raise them to a new level."
"The joint venture is a sign that Osram is focusing its efforts consistently on digitalization. Continental's expertise in software and electronics is the perfect complement to our technology leadership in automotive lighting. It will create a forward-looking company for digital automotive lighting," said Stefan Kampmann, member of the Osram Licht AG Management Board.
The automotive industry lighting market is in the grip of technological change. Similar to the situation with general lighting, this market is moving toward semiconductor-based lighting solutions. Thanks to increasingly intelligent light functions in vehicles as well as new light-based design and application options, semiconductor-based technology, software and electronics are gaining progressively in importance. Each year, growth in the market for semiconductor-based front lighting solutions is somewhere in the double-digit range. Market studies indicate that by as early as 2025 more than half of new cars worldwide could be fitted with semiconductor-based lighting solutions.
"Intelligent lighting solutions allow vehicle manufacturers a greater degree of flexibility when it comes to design, and help them to optimize development costs," commented Andreas Wolf, head of Continental´s Body & Security business unit. "The global presence of the Osram Continental joint venture would allow us to cooperate closely with our customers in order to develop solutions exactly tailored to their needs. In the case of Continental and Osram, we have two technology companies combining their complementary expertise in the context of a joint venture to offer customers a unique range of solutions," added Wolf.
"Digitalization is bringing about new potential applications in automotive lighting and hence tremendous opportunities that we want to take advantage of with Continental. Thanks to our combined offering of lighting and electronics solutions, we will be able to offer automotive sector customers cutting-edge products from a single source," explained Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO of Osram's Specialty Lighting business unit.
"By joining forces, we will be in an even better position to drive forward innovations by working closely with the automotive industry to integrate lighting, sensor technology and electronics seamlessly in a single application. This will allow us to drive forward new intelligent light functions, such as the combination of lighting and sensor technology in a module or light-based communication between the driver, other road users and the vehicle surroundings," added Schwabe.
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