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Everyone suffering from heat waves in Europe knows the feeling of getting into the car that has been parked outdoors for hours.
Car paints are usually made of resin, a material in which the molecules vibrate and generate heat under the sun, driving up the temperature.
The temperature of a car dashboard can go up to 70 degrees Celsius in scorching summer, according to a study published by researchers from Arizona State University and the UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Japanese carmaker Nissan is developing an automotive paint that can cool the vehicle down.
Nissan’s cool paint contains metamaterial with two microstructure particles – One to block and reflect near-infrared rays in the sunlight, and the other to convert heat into electromagnetic waves and release them to the space above Earth’s atmosphere.
This helps keep the temperature from rising.
Testing results: Up to 12 degrees cooler
The company says the effect is particularly noticeable when a vehicle is parked in the sun for an extended period.
It also helps reduce the need to run the air-conditioning and unburden the engine, or if it’s an electric vehicle, the battery.
The white paint is still in the trial stage.
In a field test conducted in August 2024 at Tokyo International Air Terminal in Japan, the cool paint managed to bring down exterior surfaces and cabin temperatures by 12 degrees Celsius and 5 degrees, respectively, compared to traditional automotive paint.
For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
Video editor • Roselyne Min