Nissan’s latest technology tackles a problem every driver faces

This is a situation that many drivers are all too familiar with.

Let’s say it’s the middle of July or August when it’s about 92 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Park outside under not an inch of shade. Chances are, by the time you’re back, the inside of your car will feel more like a sauna than a comfortable place to sit for more than 20 seconds.

There are ways to prevent this, but drivers know that sunshades can be cumbersome to install every time you park, and parking under trees or in indoor car parks is not a viable option all the time.

Nissan is set to change all that with its latest innovation, which can help drivers save gas when idling with the A/C on blast.

Nissan’s super cool paint job

Nissan recently revealed that it is working with a Chinese cooling company called Radi-Cool to develop a stylish new car paint designed to reduce temperatures.

According to Nissan, the luxury paint “incorporates metamaterials, synthetic composite materials with structures that exhibit properties not typically found in nature.”

The paint materials are designed to reflect infrared rays instead of absorbing them. They also create electromagnetic waves that counter the sun’s rays, preventing them from being absorbed by the car’s surfaces.

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Dr. Susumu Miura, senior director of Nissan Research Center’s Advanced Materials and Processing Laboratory, noted that this revolutionary paint technology is important because cars idling with A/C waste a lot of fuel and can translate into energy wasted.

“My dream is to create cooler cars without consuming energy,” said Miura. “This is especially important in the EV era, where the load from running air conditioning in the summer can have a considerable impact on the state of charge.”

Cool new paint showing some results. Compared to traditional car paint, Nissan claims their new paint makes the outside of the car 22 degrees Fahrenheit cooler and 9 degrees cooler inside.

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Any color you want as long as it’s white.

Radiant paint cooling technology is not a new discovery; it is currently used for buildings and is usually applied using a paint roller.

Since 2021, Miura and his team have tested over 100 samples of this paint and developed a suitable solution for automotive use.

It is six times thicker than typical automotive paint; Miura and his Nissan team found it resistant to road salt, chipping, peeling, scratches and chemical reactions.

Nissan says the Miura’s team is developing thinner paints that could offer the same cooling abilities. He envisions the paint being used in light commercial vehicle applications such as vans, trucks and ambulances that spend most of the day driving.

Miura hopes the paint will be offered for special order Nissans in different colors. Currently, the only color his team has been able to produce is white, a car color that is notoriously difficult to maintain.

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