With the entire world's energy conservationists lobbying for a switch to less wasteful sources of energy it was to be expected that car manufacturers would begin making a big switch in favor of LED usage in headlights.

The year 2007 will be a new milestone in the world of headlights manufacturing. This is because automakers are now busy composing LEDs for all the future auto headlights.

, a short term for a light-emitting -diode, is a semiconductor device that gives off light when electrically biased in the frontward path of an electric circuit.

The light emitted by an LED is a form of electroluminescence. The different colors that are emitted by LEDs are dependent upon the condition and composition of the semiconducting material.

LEDs have been around since they were first introduced in the 1970s. They were initially incorporated only in wristwatches. Their lighting applications have been applied only in recent years.

Today LEDs are being used in taillights and also in traffic signals and eventually they will lead the auto industry to a dramatic shift to headlights. The rationale behind the car headlights incorporated with LEDs is to make them much brighter in order to illuminate the roads in a better and safer way.

Car headlights that would employ LEDs are usually bright enough to light up the streets at night.

Also car headlights having LEDs are also more long-lasting, sophisticated and resilient.

A8 Audi headlights which are basically Audi's first Led experiment are LED daytime

running variety of lights.

Looking at the runaway response to the Audi A8, It has now come out with S6 and S8 and the company plans to incorporate LED into its R8 sports car. This will be introduced in the United States next year.

One major drawback of LED headlights is that they are extremely cost prohibitive. They could cost up to eight times as much as the already expensive high-intensity discharge of .

Hid lights are icy blue colored headlights that produce too bright a glare. HID headlights can cost anywhere between $800 and $1,000 to replace a single pair. Eight times that amount would be in the region of $ 8000!

In addition to Audi, the other car manufacturers who would be using Led headlights are Escalade, Lexus and Lincoln. The Cadillac Escalade's headlights would have LEDs to give the vehicle a unique signature. Also the Lexus LS and Lincoln Navigator will be incorporating LEDs in the near future.

Inspite of the cost factor, LEDs can be a high class addition to the coolness factor of your car.