Nissan Motor Co. has unveiled a breakthrough in automotive technology with the development of a new type of paint that has the ability to lower the temperature inside a vehicle parked under direct sunlight. Compared to a car with a standard paint job, the newly coated vehicle showed a remarkable decrease of up to 12 degrees in surface temperature, providing a more comfortable environment for both the car's exterior and interior.
Nissan's innovative paint material works by replicating a process known as radiative cooling on the painted surface, similar to how the ground releases heat to cool off in natural circumstances. Collaborating with Radi-Cool, a Chinese enterprise specializing in radiative cooling technologies and materials, Nissan successfully demonstrated the paint's effectiveness in reducing heat, with temperature readings showing a significant 12-degree drop on the car roof and a 5-degree decrease on the driver's seat in comparison to traditional paint applications.
While the new paint shows promise in minimizing energy consumption from air conditioning in vehicles, there are challenges to overcome, such as the thickness of the paint being six times more than the standard coating used on car surfaces, and cost implications that could deter its mass production for regular passenger automobiles. However, Nissan plans to focus on commercializing the paint for specialized vehicles like ambulances as an initial step, aiming to bring the benefits of reduced temperatures to specific vehicle applications where the cost and thickness constraints may be more manageable.