LED Headlights VS Xenon Headlights : What’s the Difference?

Night driving can now turn into a dazzling - even blinding - light show from the different types of headlights found on newer vehicles. The familiar warm yellow glow cast by halogen bulbs is rapidly being replaced by brighter, whiter light-emitting diode LED headlights and high-intensity discharge lamps filled with xenon gas. What is the difference between these two types of headlights?

LED Headlights

In automotive applications, LEDs have a distinctive white color and are brighter than halogen lamps, although they are usually not as bright as xenon lamps. Because they are small, LEDs can be squeezed into tight spaces and arranged in a variety of patterns, giving automotive engineers and designers more room to be creative.

With LEDs, the current passing through the semiconductor (or diode) produces brighter light than other types of headlights and often has a wider beam pattern. LEDs are about 90 percent more efficient than incandescent lamps and produce less heat. LEDs last longer than halogen or xenon lamps, although they do get dimmer over time.

LEDs are becoming the dominant type of headlight because they use less energy than other types of lights, they last longer, and they are becoming less expensive to manufacture.

Xenon Headlights

Xenon high-intensity-discharge headlights have bulbs, but unlike halogen lights, they don’t have filaments so they tend to last longer than halogens but not as long as LEDs. They use less energy than halogens and more than LEDs. They also are hotter than LEDs and become dimmer over time.

In an xenon headlight, electric current passes through the xenon gas to create an arc between two electrodes and generate intense white or bluish light that is often brighter than LEDs. Aftermarket xenon lights are available in different shades of blue and yellow as well as white.

On dark roads, some xenon lights are so bright that even the low beams can blind oncoming drivers. To compensate, cars with xenon lights often have leveling systems that automatically adjust the beam pattern when the lights are turned on.

LEDs and xenon lights initially were offered only on luxury and higher-priced vehicles, but today they are more widely available, especially LEDs. Some manufacturers have made LEDs standard across their entire range of moderately priced vehicle lines. Xenon lights are offered on fewer new vehicles but remain popular in the aftermarket.

Which is better?

It's hard to say because the type of lighting isn't the only factor that affects headlight performance. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which evaluates headlamps in its safety ratings, says many factors affect performance: the design of the headlamp assembly, the reflector or projector that directs light onto the road, and how well the headlamps are aimed.

IIHS rated the headlamps as good, acceptable, poor or poor based on how well they illuminate the straight and left and right curves, and how well they illuminate both sides of the road.

In IIHS tests, LEDs typically perform better than other types.