What are Xenon and High Intensity Discharge?
High Intensity Discharge (HID) is a type of lighting technology that replaces the filament of the light bulb with a capsule of gas. When high voltage is applied, the gas is ignited to produce an arc of light. Xenon is the most common gas used in automotive HID systems. The amount of light produced is greater than a standard halogen bulb, while consuming less power, and more closely approximating the color temperature of natural daylight. On the road, Xenon HID headlights appear as a bright white with a slight purple tint. While cars equipped with Xenon lights are still relatively rare, they are easily spotted. The most common cars that come with Xenon lights are late model Mercedes-Benz S500, BMW 750iL, and Lincoln Mark VIII.
