Ford is the only automaker to offer a factory-installed strobe warning LED light kit, is making strobe lights available to F-150 fleet customers for the first time.
Osram will acquire Novità Technologies, a U.S. manufacturer of automotive LED modules which are used in tail lights, fog lights and daytime running lights. The acquisition will immediately be “margin-accretive” in the Specialty Lighting segment.
Novità Technologies, based in Hendersonville, Tennessee, has annual sales of more than €40 million. It employs 100 workers and ships mainly to headlight and tail light manufacturers in the United States.
Both parties have agreed not to divulge any financial details of the transaction, which is planned to be completed by October 2016. This is part of the three-pillar strategy announced last November by Osram, which is further expanding its Specialty Lighting business.
“The purchase of Novità Technologies is an outstanding addition to our project and system business and at the same time strengthens our position on the important U.S. market, “said Hans-Joachim Schwabe, CEO of Osram’s Specialty Lighting business unit.
Automakers are changing the design and functionality of light. As a result, there is increasing demand for complete systems and modules rather than for the pure light sources. A successful example is the Ford F-150, for which Osram developed a complete LED-based front lighting system comprising of low and high beams, turn indicators, parking lights and the control module.
Now it can bid on the back-end of the pickup.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
