LEDs Brighten New Mustang

With light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the cup holders, map pockets, dashboard and footwells, Ford's 2010 Mustang may be taking the auto industry's boldest step yet into the world of LED lighting.

The new Mustang, introduced earlier this year, is consistent with the growing desire of automakers to use LEDs, instead of incandescent bulbs, to boost the image of their vehicles. In the Mustang, Ford designers created an aura inside the car, and then enhanced that aura by enabling owners to change the color of the LED lighting. Using a feature called "MyColor," the new Mustang provides 125 color possibilities for the instrument cluster, while allowing seven color options for the footwells, map pockets, cup holders and door sill plates. Drivers can change the interior colors to their liking merely by flicking a switch.

"It made a lot of sense to people in our product planning committee," says Rob Gelardi, a senior designer for the 2010 Mustang. "Mustang is the perfect vehicle to launch a technology like this."

To be sure, Ford isn't alone in its use of LEDs for interior lighting. Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and General Motors have made significant use of LEDs to brighten their interiors. More than half of all automakers also employ LEDs in center high-mount stop lamps (CHMSLs), as well as in daytime running lamps and parking lamps. Approximately 2 percent of new vehicles also use LEDs for high- and low-beam headlights.

Consistency Is Key

To date, however, the real impact of automotive LEDs has been in the interior. Ford launched MyColor in 2006 and added ambient LED lighting in 2008. Then it improved and broadened its use the technology in the 2010 Mustang.

"In 2010, we added an even better execution of footwells and cup holders," Gelardi says. "Then we did the rear-seat area, map pockets, and the coolest part: the sill plates."

Indeed, the Mustang sill plate is likely to be popular among Mustang owners and enthusiasts. The feature borrows from the iconic, embossed aluminum sill plates long used in Mustangs, then adds LED lighting to illuminate the sill's Mustang logo, so it can be seen at night.

"When I got my 2010 Mustang, I'd change the color and say, ‘Check this out,' and I'd open the door," Gelardi says. "Then I'd close the door, change the color and open the door again." The sill plate, along with the rest of the ambient lighting, appears in Ford's brand color, called "Ice-Blue," as well as in red, green, blue, orange, purple and white.

Ford worked with Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc., which makes LEDs and associated electronics and optics, to develop the Mustang's illumination. Osram supplied LED components for the interior, including the company's MULTILED, which contains red, green and blue chips in one LED package, as well as its TOPLED and Mini TOPLED products. The semiconductor maker worked with Ford to develop the custom Ice Blue version of the TOPLED and Mini TOPLED, both created by employing a proprietary phosphor chemistry to get the exact color Ford wanted.

Osram engineers said the key to pleasing Ford was to provide consistent LED lighting quality. That way, vehicle owners wouldn't see differences between the lighting in the footwells, dashboard and doors.

"Ford wanted consistency throughout the vehicle - consistency in the brightness and consistency in the color," says Mike Godwin, director of the Visible LED Business Unit for Osram. "That was always their target."

By carefully controlling electrical, optical and thermal parameters of the products, Osram was able to provide the desired consistency. The company then worked with suppliers — including makers of cup holders, map pockets and other vehicle components — on the performance of the LEDs within the finished products.

"By having a consistent LED, Ford is able to rely on their (electronic) controls, and not steer too far from the original target colors," Godwin says.

Customizable Future

Gelardi says Ford couldn't have reached its goals with incandescent lighting.

"Packaging would have been a big problem," he says. "Imagine putting an incandescent bulb in a door sill plate or a cup holder. I wouldn't have been able to put it where I wanted it within the interior of the car."

Color variation would have been an issue, too, Gelardi says. The use of so-called RGB (red-green-blue) LEDs enabled Ford to quickly change colors in a way that wouldn't have been possible with incandescent bulbs.

Experts say the plummeting costs of LEDs, along with the rise in brightness, are the reasons behind choices like Ford's. Newer, brighter designs are said to be about 10-20 times more powerful than the products of five years ago. A few LED products now offer in excess of 50 lm/W — in some cases as much as 100 — whereas many products a few years ago offered less than five. At the same time, costs have dropped dramatically. Designers of LED-based signage, who often use millions of the devices on a single project, say that LEDs emerged as a solution between 1999 and 2008, when prices dropped by about two-thirds.

At the same time, LEDs are said to be enabling automotive designers to enhance their brand images. During the Mustang project, designers built a so-called "half buck" to demonstrate the technology internally, then ended up showing and re-showing it to hundreds of engineers and executives throughout the company.

"Everybody wanted to see it," Gelardi says. "I ended up presenting it to (Ford Executive Vice President) Mark Fields and (Ford CEO) Alan Mulally. It went all the way to the highest echelons of the company."

The technology was an immediate hit internally, Gelardi says, because it enables Mustang owners to customize their cars without going the aftermarket route.

"You always want to make it your Mustang," Gelardi says. "It's always been one of the most customizable cars. "With this, you can customize your car different every day."