How cool is this? Nissan trials paint that dissipates heat

Nissan is experimenting with a new paint that reflects heat, which it hopes will reduce the load on air-conditioning systems in cars.

Nissan Japan has released images of two otherwise identical Nissan Leaf electric vehicles coated in white paint.

One is coated in regular paint, and the other is coated in white paint that has been specially designed to dissipate heat.

To prove the effectiveness, it pointed a heat gun at each car to show the difference.

The ‘regular’ car showed 39.1 degrees Celsius and the special paint showed 32.9 degrees Celsius.

Also: fun fact. That’s similar to the heat gun I once used to check the temperature of a mate’s pizza oven when trying to get it to 400 degrees Celsius.

Frankly, making a pizza is hard. I think it should be an Olympic sport.

I even cheated one time and brought dough from a local pizza shop and took it to my mate’s place and I still stuffed up, tearing the dough and turning it into charcoal.

Any way, here’s hoping making heat-reflecting paint is easier than making pizza from scratch.

While we’re taking about hot cars, in case you didn’t know, white and silver cars tend to reflect heat better than darker coloured cars such as black and dark grey.

We’d like to see Nissan take its heat-reflecting paint out into the Australian desert with a pair of black cars (one with the special coat, and one without) and see what numbers those temperature sensors flash up.

For the tech heads, below is some more detail from Nissan about its special paint, straight off the gun (that is, from the press release).

Developed in partnership with Radi-Cool, a specialist in radiative cooling products, the paint incorporates metamaterial, synthetic composite materials with structures that exhibit properties not usually found in nature.

In November 2023, Nissan commenced a 12-month feasibility trial at Tokyo International Air Terminal at Haneda.

In collaboration with Japan Airport Terminal Co., Ltd., Radi-Cool Japan, and All Nippon Airways (ANA) airport service, Nissan’s cool paint has been applied to a Nissan NV100 service vehicle operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA) airport services.

With its large, open tarmac, Haneda airport provided the perfect environment to conduct real-world evaluation of the paint’s performance under an exposed high-temperature environment.

Although still in testing phase, the results to date have been impressive. Parked side-by-side under the sun, a vehicle treated in Nissan’s cool paint has shown yields of up to a 12-degree Celsius reduction in exterior surface temperatures and up to 5-degree Celsius cooler interior, compared to a vehicle featuring traditional automotive paint.

The paint’s cooling performance is particularly noticeable when a vehicle is parked in the sun for an extended period.

A cooler cabin is not only more pleasant to enter, but also requires less air-conditioning run-time to cool the cabin to a comfortable temperature.

This helps reduce load to the engine, or in the case of an electric vehicle, draw on the battery. In both powertrains, an improvement in efficiency is expected, as well as occupant comfort.

The metamaterial embedded within Nissan’s cool paint features two microstructure particles that react to light.

One particle reflects near-infrared rays in the sunlight that would typically cause molecular level vibrations within the resin of traditional paint to produce heat.

The second particle enables the real breakthrough. It creates electromagnetic waves, that counteract the sun’s rays, redirecting the energy away from the vehicle into the atmosphere.

Combined, the particles in Nissan’s cool paint reduce the transfer of heat into surfaces such as the roof, hood, doors and panels.

Since commencing the development in 2021, (Nissan) has tested over 100 samples, and is currently evaluating a thickness of 120 microns, approximately six times thicker than typical automotive paint.

They have confirmed resistance to salt and chipping, peeling, scratches, chemical reactions, along with colour consistency and repairability.

As development progresses, (Nissan) continues to explore thinner options that deliver the same level of cooling performance.

While the testing and development is ongoing, (Nissan hopes) it can one day be offered for special orders and in a variety of colours.

(Nissan also) sees strong potential particularly for light commercial vehicle applications such as vans, trucks and ambulances that spend most of the day out driving.

Now, if you’ve read this far, do you think EFTM should do more content on making pizzas from scratch?

Surely that falls into the ‘Tech’ or ‘Lifestyle’ part of EFTM’s slogan ‘Tech, Cars, Lifestyle‘.