Volvo has adopted LED lighting from ZKW for its latest all-electric crossover, the C40. The car has a pixel module with 84 individually controllable LEDs. The new lighting system improves road safety by increasing road illumination with dynamic adaptation to road conditions while eliminating dazzling light for oncoming motorists.

A front camera and radar permanently scan the road, allowing up to five vehicles to be blanked simultaneously. The headlight combines daytime running light, position light and turn signal light in a compact form.

The adaptive lighting system with camera and radar sensor is designed to provide a higher level of road safety by optimally illuminating the road without dazzling oncoming traffic, and effect produced by individually controllable LEDs combined in the pixel module. A front camera and the radar eye detect oncoming vehicles or vehicles in front and activate or deactivate the LED light in the headlamp’s pixel module via the control unit. The system achieves a high light output despite the compact dimensions of the front headlamp. The LED light was developed in Wieselburg, where the headlight is also manufactured while the pixel module electronics come from the ZKW electronics plant in Wiener Neustadt.

The light output of the premium headlamp is achieved by the LED pixel module in combination with ForTIR elements. The ForTIR elements use the apron to project part of the low beam onto the road. These are particularly flat projection modules that are just 13 millimetres high and serve as design elements in the main headlights.