There’s a cool new paint being experimented on by Nissan and it can help reduce energy waste.
In the 21st century, the theme around the automotive industry seems to be energy efficiency whether it’s an ICE, hybrid or more recently an electric vehicle. The benefits of better energy efficiency are universally accepted to be necessary for the planet and can directly improve quality of life as well. So, car makers like Nissan are trying to find ways to reduce energy wastage in areas where traditionally they may not look. One area that has recently been experimented on is paint use.
Nissan has partnered up with Radi-Cool to try out a new paint that incorporates “metamaterial” which are composite materials that have properties that aren’t usually found in nature. Back in November 2023, Nissan started a feasibility study at the Tokyo International Air Terminal at Haneda – applying this cool paint to a Nissan NV100 service vehicle being operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA) airport services. As the service vehicle was being operated in an open area during some of the hottest months, this gave the company an opportunity to study the paint in real world extreme conditions.
While the study is still ongoing, Nissan are quite keen on sharing their results so far. Parked side-byside under the sun with another NV100 on standard factory paint, the cool paint is observed to be up to 12 degrees Celcius cooler, at least in terms of its exterior surface temperature. What is perhaps more interesting is that the interior is shown to be 5 degrees Celcius cooler than the standard paint car.
5 degrees may not sound like much, but this makes a world of difference where it matters most. The car with the cool paint is a lot more pleasant to be in after being parked for an extended period of time and the air conditioning doesn’t need to be run for so long to get the temperature down. This in turn reduces the amount of energy wasted on climate control. Better occupant comfort and better energy efficiency.
About The Metamaterial Used
There are two microstructure particles that give this paint its cool quality. The first reflects near-infrared rays in sunlight. These rays are typically what produce heat in the resin of paint by causing molecular level vibrations.
The second particle creates electromagnetic waves that counteract the sun’s rays, redirecting energy away from the vehicle and into the atmosphere. The combination of these two particles reduces the transfer of heat into the surfaces of the vehicle.
Why Has It Taken So Long?
Paints of this nature have been in use for many years now. However, they are usually applied to buildings as the paint itself is very thick and needs to be applied with a roller rather than a spray gun. What’s more the paint typically doesn’t work with a clear topcoat, so it will leave residue when touched and won’t be protected the way your typical car paint is.
In Nissan’s case, their R&D team had to ensure clear topcoat application was viable and that the paint itself could be sprayed on to meet the brand’s internal standards for paint quality. They’ve been working on this since 2021 and have determined that a thickness of 120 microns (which is 6 times thicker than traditional automotive paint) is required. They’ve also tested it with road salt, put it through durability tests with debris and typical chemicals picked up on the road. They’ve also tested to see how the colour changes over time and how repairable the paint is. All this while working to reduce the paint’s thickness and increase the variety of colour options available. This possibly means that Nissan will eventually roll this paint out on production cars.
