German sports car maker, Audi, has turned to LED head lamps for the R8. Since 1992, red LEDs have been used increasingly for high-level brake lights, as well for tail lights and regular brake lights. This is however the first time that a manufacturer has decided to employ LED technology to head lamps. This follows Audi employing peripheral white LEDs as daytime running lights, first on the Audi A8 W12 in 2004 and then on the Audi S6, Audi R8 and Audi A5/S5 from 2006. Apart from the daytime running lights, these functions comprise the turn signals and the dipped beam and main beam headlights. Various groups of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) known as arrays, produce the correct light distribution and brightness. Each headlight unit has a total of 54 LED light sources.

The benefits of LED technology include its low energy consumption (50 watts for the dipped beam headlights, 6 watts for the daytime running lights), a colour that is similar to daylight for enhanced contrast and more pleasant visual perception, the non-wearing design, lower voltage requirements, compact dimensions and the increased freedom of design. Technically speaking, a LED is a semiconductor light-source, which emits cold light at low voltages of 3 to 4volts. The new LED arrays produce a luminous flux of 400 lumen - the unit of luminous flux, which describes the luminous power emitted by a light source - at a current strength of 1ampere. Each headlight unit has a total of 54 LED light sources. The benefits of LED technology include its low energy consumption, which lies by 50W for the dipped beam headlights and 6W for the daytime running lights, a colour that is similar to daylight for enhanced contrast, the non-wearing design, lower voltage requirements as well as compact dimensions.

A special permit from the EU has paved the way for incorporating front-lighting LED technology into series production ahead of schedule. Innovations in lighting technology are often based on the development of new light sources such as Halogen bulbs or xenon headlights. Regarding the advances being made in LED technology, it will soon be possible to reproduce the same functions with these semiconductor elements too. Each light unit consists of a housing, a chip or chip array, a circuit board and a heat sink. Electric ventilators ensure effective heat dissipation and also defrost the headlight units.

Interestingly, the LED headlight that will in future be available as an option for the R8 is made of the following components: LED dipped beam headlights as the primary function. Here, basic light distribution is taken care of by LED arrays, each consisting of four chips, which shine out of free-form reflectors. A further three two-chip LED arrays for light in the region of the light-dark boundary and for the headlight range are located behind the lens. Directly adjacent to this is the main beam headlight comprising one four-chip LED array inside each of the two reflector shells. The 24 white LEDs for daytime running lights are distinctively positioned along the bottom edge of the headlight unit. The turn signal with its eight yellow LEDs is placed on the top edge of the headlight unit pointing towards the single-frame grille, where it combines with the strip of LED daytime running lights to form a frame around the headlight.