International automotive supplier FORVIA HELLA has been honored with the prestigious CLEPA Innovation Award for its FlatLight | µMX technology. The award ceremony took place last night in Brussels (Belgium). The CLEPA Innovation Award, organized and presented annually by the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (Comité de Liaison Européen des Fabricants d’Équipements et de Pièces Automobiles, CLEPA), recognizes particularly outstanding or innovative achievements by automotive suppliers.

FORVIA HELLA’s FlatLight | µMX technology is based on an innovative LED light guide concept using so-called micro-optics – optics that are smaller than a grain of salt. Thanks to the extremely low module depth, the required installation space is reduced by up to 90 percent, to just five millimeters. Since multicolored combinations of daytime running, indicator, and position lights or rear, stop, and indicator lights, can be implemented in a single optical element, the FlatLight technology opens up entirely new possibilities for designing front and rear lighting. Another key advantage of FlatLight is its efficiency: compared to similar systems on the market, it is about 40 to 80 percent more energy-efficient per technical application and around 80 percent lighter – while maintaining consistently high light performance and homogeneity.

Dr. Michael Kleinkes, who is responsible for global lighting development at FORVIA HELLA, said: “With the CLEPA Innovation Award, we have received one of the world’s most important and renowned honors in the automotive industry. For the innovative strength of our teams, this is once again a great recognition, of which we are very proud. Our goal is to bring technologies into series production that set new standards in the automotive sector and are equally attractive and economically viable for both the premium and volume segments. The fact that we have achieved this with our FlatLight technology is underscored not only by this year’s CLEPA Award – but also by the various customer projects we have already been able to win for our FlatLight.”

FlatLight technology first went into series production last year as a rear lamp application, followed by its use as a daytime running light in the vehicle front in the autumn of this year. In total, FlatLight from FORVIA HELLA is already part of customer projects with a total volume in the mid three-digit million euro range. The FlatLight technology is produced at the Slovakian lighting plants in Kočovce and Bánovce. The development of the FlatLight modules takes place at the Company headquarters in Lippstadt (Germany), while customer-specific applications are developed at the sites in Ljubljana (Slovenia), Mohelnice, and Ostrava (Czech Republic).

(Photo credit: FORVIA HELLA)

TrendForce 2025 Global Automotive LED Market- Lighting and Display Product Trend
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