When I complained to my partners Renault dealer about the poor reversing light he said there was nothing they could do without infringing EU law as the light has to be of a certain wattage and close to the ground.

Another crazy law which I see doesn’t apply to vans!

Reversing lights are for the benefit of other drivers and pedestrians, not to illuminate the way when reversing as they then look like headlights. Its the reason why they are low wattage.

The i30 has two reversing lights, each just above the indicator/sidelight/brakelight cluster, they do give reasonable light fr reversing.

Most makers seem to provide just one, don't know why unless as usual it saves costs.

Manufacturers use the legal loophole of having to fit only one reversing lamp ... to fit only one. Same again with rear fog lamps, can fit two but many only fit one. On some cars the manufacturer will remove the offside reversing light and replace it with a fog lamp as a cheap way to make the car legal.

If you find you need more light when reversing one option is to put your rear fog light on, the red light may not be the best but is better than no light - just remember to switch it off afterwards!

even with only one reverse light fitted they can with an LED be a lot brighter than they are even with a Halogen bulb fitted, a good LED is brighter than a Halogen and gives a whiter light which is more useful for reversing because it shows people up better than Halogen

They should be measured in Lumens rather than watts as even with Halogen, wattage is deceiving as far as colour/ brightness is concerned, ie a 6w LED is equivalent to roughly 60w Halogen as well as being cheaper (and should be longer lasting) to run, though that isn`t taken into consideration due to not running from mains

Or use your nice bright hazard lights which also have the added plus of warning others around you that you are manoeuvring.

Manufacturers use the legal loophole of having to fit only one reversing lamp ... to fit only one. Same again with rear fog lamps, can fit two but many only fit one. On some cars the manufacturer will remove the offside reversing light and replace it with a fog lamp as a cheap way to make the car legal.

It is sensible, not penny pinching, to fit only one rear fog lamp, as on my flagship Audi. On a misty drizzly dark busy motorway it can be difficult to see when brake lights come on if there are already too many bright red lights on both sides diffusing through the spray. My TR7 has the luxury of two reversing lights....and also two rear fog lamps, but these are wisely hung underneath the bumper well away from the main rear light cluster.

I'd noticed LED bulbs advertised with a decent lumens output so decided to invest in one.

Colour me impressed but what a difference from factory bulb, I can actually see where I'm going now. At about a fiver (not cheap admittedly - standard bulb about £1.50) it's the best cost effective upgrade I've done to the vehicle.

Unless the light unit has been certified for use with an LED bulb & the car homologated with them then strictly speaking it's not road legal & could even invalidate your insurance (there supposedly was a claim where this actually happened for either reversing or no. plate lights).

As others have mentioned there is a considerable difference in output between halogen/HID/LED bulbs of the same wattage & the UNECE regulations are slowly going over to using lumen output for specifications rather than wattage.

its about time they brought out lamp units that were LED capable on older cars, there must be a market for them as there is for LED bulbs, I think they are a bit slow on the uptake with getting these lamps certified and will probably make a lot of money in the process imo

Most lighting regulations go back to legislation in 1989, long before LED were the norm in cars.

Personally self interest trumps regulation - I prefer to see where I am driving even at slow speeds. However parking sensors (another innovation not available to ordinary mortals in 1989) at least stop me hitting stationary objects - although walking objects represent a different challenge.