I too was not happy with the stock headlamps (both low and high beams) on our EV's. In part because they don't match the color of the LED's around them, but more importantly because they just aren't very bright. I thought about switching them out for LED's, but given how problematic it can be both to fit LED's into the Soul's projector housings and then to make sure you get a decent (and not illegal) beam pattern with them, I decided to first try upgrading the halogen bulbs.
The car comes with 55 watt Philip H7 12972LL bulbs, which provide 1500 lumens each. Yesterday I switched those out for Osram 65 watt 64217 bulbs, which provide 2100 lumens each. Because the Osram and the Philips are both genuine H7 bulbs with their filaments in exactly the same place, the beam pattern is exactly the same -- except now the light is overall brighter and carries further. And elsewhere I had read that the additional wattage would not be a problem within the car's electrical system.
I am very happy with this improvement and will stop here rather than trying any LED's. The one drawback is these bulbs don't last as long as the stocks -- they are rated for 500 hours as opposed to 1500 hours for the stock bulbs. But since the Soul doesn't use the lows for DRL's, this really should not be a big problem.
PS- Thanks to Ptrs for the earlier tip re moving the fuse box - that was the only way I could get my hand in to replace the driver side low beam. Did NOT need to remove anything else to get at the others; just needed a little patient squeezing.
The car comes with 55 watt Philip H7 12972LL bulbs, which provide 1500 lumens each. Yesterday I switched those out for Osram 65 watt 64217 bulbs, which provide 2100 lumens each. Because the Osram and the Philips are both genuine H7 bulbs with their filaments in exactly the same place, the beam pattern is exactly the same -- except now the light is overall brighter and carries further. And elsewhere I had read that the additional wattage would not be a problem within the car's electrical system.
I am very happy with this improvement and will stop here rather than trying any LED's. The one drawback is these bulbs don't last as long as the stocks -- they are rated for 500 hours as opposed to 1500 hours for the stock bulbs. But since the Soul doesn't use the lows for DRL's, this really should not be a big problem.
PS- Thanks to Ptrs for the earlier tip re moving the fuse box - that was the only way I could get my hand in to replace the driver side low beam. Did NOT need to remove anything else to get at the others; just needed a little patient squeezing.
and little hand ?
