Recent History of "Bosch" H4 Headlights

Bosch and Magneti Marelli merged their vehicle lighting activities in the late 1990s to form a new company called Automotive Lighting ("AL"). Clever of them; this way nobody can discuss automotive lighting without mentioning Automotive Lighting. All OE supply was done under the AL brand. Aftermarket sales continued under both the Magneti Marelli and Bosch supply channels until Bosch divested from AL and left the vehicle lighting business a few years later. So AL lamps are technically (though not nominally) OE items made by the current iteration of the OE supplier on OE tooling; this isn't a copycat product in "aftermarket quality".

 

But there is that AL branding getting in the way of these being 1:1 with the original equipment, so it's particularly nice that Bosch bought back in with AL a few years ago to reintroduce certain vintage headlamps and Bosch-branded lenses. The Porsche 911 headlamp in black or chrome (0 301 800 101 and 103) is apparently the only complete headlamp in this program, but their availability is spotty and they are expensive if you can find them - $1,275.00 a pair.