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Some Scandinavian countries have used daytime lights for decades, and Volvo cars had them hard-wired into is cars through the 1980s, but light company Hella believes there is a big advantage after new research.
A Dutch study for the European Commission highlights a potential safety improvement from driving with lights on during the day.
It showed that in half of daytime crashes one of the contributing factors was that other vehicles were either not seen, or seen too late, according to the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research.
At the same time, 59.3 per cent of German drivers said in a recent survey that they would be prepared to drive with daytime running lights and as many as 67.5 per cent are open to new cars being fitted with economical daytime running lamps.
Hella is also preparing to raise the issue in Australia.
It helps that the company has a suitable aftermarket system but it has begun a campaign in Europe and believes there could be potential in Australia.
The Hella lights are designed for warning effectiveness during daylight and switch on automatically when the engine is started.
There is no other lighting and, since they only consume 16 watts, there is no effect on fuel economy. Hella also says their service life is up to 10 times higher than a halogen bulb for low beam.
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