Nissan Developing 'Cool Paint' That Fights Off Sunlight And Heat

It's hot outside, and everyone is complaining. Nissan is doing something about it. According to Nissan, the company "has been trialing an innovative automotive paint aimed at helping lower a vehicle's ambient cabin temperature in summer and reduce the energy usage of the air-conditioning system."

Nissan unveiled the cool paint on Tuesday to keep people inside vehicles cooler, but the coating is six times thicker, making commercialization difficult. The company's announcement came at a good time because the summer has been awful everywhere, even in Malaysia, where there have been constant heat waves.

In that kind of heat, parking outside is more than uncomfortable. Authorities have noted an increase in fatalities from hot cars. In the summertime, the inside of a car can get very hot. Co-developed with Radi-Cool of China, which developed a film, fabric and coating that cut heat, Nissan tested the paint on cars cruising Tokyo's Haneda airport, which has a lot of open space and is an ideal location to evaluate the technology.

The vehicles with the special paint resembled ordinary cars but felt much cooler to the touch. According to the carmaker, the cool paint reduced the temperature of the cars' roof panels by 12 degrees Celsius (22 degrees Fahrenheit) and the interiors by 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit).

“The results to date have been impressive,” Nissan says. “Parked side-by-side under the sun, a vehicle treated in Nissan’s cool paint has shown yields of up to a 21.6-degree Fahrenheit reduction in exterior surface temperatures and up to 9-degree Fahrenheit cooler interior, compared to a vehicle featuring traditional automotive paint.”

Nissan claims the paint isn't ready for widespread use on cars. So far, it is applied using a roller rather than a spray gun. That time-consuming process would be impractical in an automobile factory. It's also thicker than standard auto paint.
Nonetheless, the manufacturer claims that it can be used as repair paint on small nicks and is resistant "to salt and chipping, peeling, scratches, [and] chemical reactions." The company is developing techniques to make it feasible in a factory environment while reducing thickness.

Manager of the Nissan Research Center Susumu Miura stated that the electromagnetic waves released by the paint had no appreciable detrimental effects on people's health. Such waves are all around us, he said.