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New Paint Can Keep Cars Cool

Auto company Nissan has developed paint that helps prevent cars from heating up on hot days.

Heat lamps are pointed at two cars as a computer measures the cars’ temperatures.

© Nissan

Two cars, one with the cooling paint and one with traditional paint, are heated as their temperatures are monitored.

If you’ve ever gotten into a car on a hot, sunny day, you know it’s not a pleasant experience. A sweltering car is not only uncomfortable but also potentially unsafe. Now, auto company Nissan Motor Co. has come up with new automotive paint that can keep a car’s exterior and interior dramatically cooler. 

Nissan tested the paint at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which receives abundant sunlight, by parking two cars next to each other—one coated with the cooling paint and one coated with regular auto paint. At the end of the test, the vehicle with the cooling paint was up to 22 °F (12 °C) cooler on the outside and up to 9 °F (5 °C) cooler on the inside than the other vehicle.

Two white cars sit side by side in a sunny parking lot.

© Nissan

Two Nissan vehicles were tested in a sunny part of Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan.

The paint contains two kinds of particles that help it stay cool. One particle helps prevent the paint from heating up by reflecting near-infrared wavelengths of light. The other produces electromagnetic waves that direct energy away from the car and into space.

© Nissan

What happens when the new paint is put to the test?

Cooling paints, which are typically white, are already used on rooftops and some other surfaces. But these paints are usually much thicker than other paints, making it impossible to put them on cars. Nissan’s paint is thinner than most cooling paints but still thicker than most auto paints.

Nissan hopes to improve its paint, making it thinner—and possibly making it available in colors other than white.

Did You Know?

The world’s most popular car color is white.

A white car surrounded by other white cars asks if there are any cars with any personality.

© FATIR29/stock.adobe.com; Illustration composite Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Driving with the Sun?

A futuristic gray car with three wheels and doors that lift up.

© Aptera

Aptera Motors makes a solar car that can also be charged with electricity.

It’s clear that cars absorb plenty of sunlight. So why aren’t all cars solar powered?

Today’s solar panels need to be fairly large. If they were any smaller, they wouldn’t be able to harness the amount of solar energy needed to be converted into a decent amount of electricity. Most cars don’t have enough surface area for large panels. 

Solar-powered cars do exist, and many automakers are developing new models. But currently, solar power can’t power a car all on its own. With most solar-powered cars, the solar energy helps to boost a power source, such as a battery.

Charged Cars

Several cars are parked and plugged in.

© Baloncici/Dreamstime.com

Electric cars are becoming more and more common—and they’re not new. Did you know that the first electric cars were built in the 1880s? Learn more about electric vehicles at Britannica!

WORD OF THE DAY

novelty

PART OF SPEECH:

noun

Definition:

: something that is new or unusual : something novel

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