The term “cool car” might not mean what you think it means in the future. In an effort to save energy, Nissan is working towards making cooler cars.
Does the interior of your car turn unbearably hot during the summer? Have you ever gone shopping or to work only to find your car’s cabin is extremely hot when you get back? This is a fairly common phenomenon caused by The car sitting in the summer sun while you’re away. There are many ways to combat this, including sunshades, parking under trees, or reflective covers, but it still takes a lot of energy to bring your car’s interior back to a cooler temperature.
Nisan works to cool your car
The materials on the outside of your car can directly impact the temperature inside. This includes the color of your vehicle. Most drivers are aware that darker colors tend to absorb heat and light, which means a black or dark blue car would be much warmer on the inside than a white or gray car. If you live in a very hot area, you’ll want to choose a lighter color to try and keep the interior cooler when it’s left out in the heat.
Although you can try to beat the heat with a lighter color, there might be a better way to do this, such as keeping the cabin area of your car cooler.
Thicker is better
Upon initial thought, it seems thicker paint would only add to the weight and heat absorption qualities of any vehicle. Strangely, the “cool paint” that Nissan is working on is six times thicker than the regular paint of most cars. This paint makes using it a challenge because it might be too thick for some cars, but Nissan is working to change that and make it useful for all vehicles.
When Nissan displayed their “cool paint” cars, the vehicles with the special paint were 22 degrees cooler on the roof than cars painted with traditional paint. The interior difference was nine degrees, which would be a slight advantage. Currently, that temperature difference isn’t likely enough to make the paint worthwhile, but it could be if the paint could keep a car’s interior much cooler than they are now.
Why is it important to have a cooler cabin?
If your car is hot on the inside from the summer’s heat, what’s the first thing you do? Typically, you’ll turn on the air conditioning and allow the vehicle to use energy to cool down the interior cabin area. Although we generally don’t notice the energy used for this cooling in gas-powered vehicles, its quickly evident in EVs which immediately display a significantly decreased driving range. To use less energy, cars will need to be cooler when in the heat.
Materials to counteract the sun
Some cooling materials are used on buildings and rolled into the paint. This paint is generally chalky to the touch and must be rolled on. This presents two problems for vehicles. Nobody wants a rolled on, chalk-style paint on their new vehicle. This is only a small part of what Nissan is working on to make cooler paint for its vehicles.
The cool paint used in the demonstration cars contains what Nissan calls “metamaterial,” which is a synthetic composite material. This could simply be particles in the paint that help reflect the near-infrared rays in sunlight that generate heat.
A second particle could be the future of car paint. Nissan says this other material creates electromagnetic waves that counteract the sun’s rays, redirecting energy away from the vehicle and into the atmosphere. This material was developed with Radi-Cool of China to cut heat. Radi-Cool makes hats and sun parasols to help keep people cool, but Nissan is the first Japanese automaker to partner with the company.
Nissan isn’t the only automaker working on cooler cars
Nissan might be leading the way in the cool car technology with paint that makes cars feel much cooler to the touch. Toyota is also working on paint to make cars cooler and provide lower cabin temperatures, but not to the same degree as Nissan. Toyota is mostly focused on colors that refract the sun’s rays, which is a common way to keep car cabins cooler than with other vehicles.
Will Nissan crack the code?
If Nissan finds the right materials and paints to keep car cabins cooler, they still have the challenge of developing vehicle glass that can do the same. For now, if you want your car to have a relatively cool cabin, you need a reflective sun visor and lighter colors for the inside and outside of the car.
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