Mercedes-Benz needed to make a quick move about the technology behind their models’ headlights – since Audi and BMW already swapped for laser headlights – and the change is finally here.
After using around 500 LEDs to attend all the lightning functions on the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class and the MULTIBEAM LED headlamps on the CLS-Class facelift, Mercedes-Benz will soon start producing headlights which feature 84 LEDs.
Whether you are happy or not about that, Mercedes-Benz explaines that while the CLS has 24 LEDs, the additional LEDs will provide a better illumination.
To support that, Mercedes also confirmed its intention to incorporate High Range LED high beams into their models’ headlamps in the near future.
“This additional high beam employs state-of-the-art high-performance LEDs to provide high-beam ranges of over 600 m in driving situations, without any oncoming traffic or vehicles ahead.”
According to Mercedes-Benz, when it comes to the number of pixels, the same is true of LED headlamps as of a digital camera: the more the better. In other words, the higher the number of individually controllable pixels, the more finely the light can be controlled and adapted to different conditions.
Although Mercedes-Benz introduced the innovative MULTIBEAM LED headlamps in 2014 in the CLS-Class, the German manufacturer reached a coupe of important milestones in lighting technologies in the past 20 years:
1991: Premiere of xenon headlamps with gas discharge lamps in the Mercedes F 100 research vehicle
1995: Xenon headlamps with dynamic headlamp range control in the E-Class
1999: Premiere of bi-xenon technology in the CL-Class
2003: World premiere of the active light function in the E-Class
2004: World premiere of bi-xenon headlamps with active light function and cornering light function in the CLS-Class
2005: Premiere of Active Night View Assist in the S-Class
2006: World premiere of the Intelligent Light System in the E-Class
2009: World premiere of the Intelligent Light System with Adaptive Highbeam Assist in the E-Class
2009: Premiere of Active Night View Assist Plus in the S- and E-Class
2010: World premiere of LED High Performance headlamps incorporating all the light functions of the Intelligent Light System in the CLS-Class
2010: New xenon burner with 20 percent higher colour temperature, and thus even closer to daylight, in the S- and E-Class
2011: Start of series production of the spotlight function (world premiere)
2013: New E-Class fitted as standard with energy-efficient LED low-beam headlamps (34 watts/vehicle)
2013: New S-Class becomes first car to be fitted exclusively with LED headlamps as standard
2014: World premiere of MULTIBEAM LED headlamps in the new CLS-Class
Read our full review of the new Mercedes-Benz CLS 350 BlueTEC with the MULTIBEAM headlights here.
