Nissan and Radi-Cool Develop Heat-Reflective Paint to Keep Cars Cooler

Japanese automaker Nissan, in partnership with the Chinese company Radi-Cool, has developed an innovative heat-reflective paint designed to cool vehicles internally and externally by reducing overall temperature. Radi-Cool is noted for its expertise in passive cooling technologies, and this collaborative effort has produced a paint that effectively reflects sunlight and resists infrared radiation.

This advanced paint is engineered to deflect electromagnetic waves, reflecting sunlight away from the vehicle. However, the paint is currently too thick for immediate commercial application on Nissan vehicles. Nevertheless, the development team remains optimistic about the technology’s future application.

Nissan has reported promising results following a series of tests that began in November 2023. During these assessments, Nissan vehicles coated with the new paint were parked in direct sunlight, with results indicating a noticeable decrease in temperature. Specifically, the exterior temperature of the roof dropped by 21.6 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius), while the interior temperature was approximately 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) cooler compared to vehicles with conventional paint.

The effectiveness of the paint is attributed to its ability to reflect heat away from the vehicle’s surface, incorporating specialized materials and particles that resist infrared rays. In contrast, standard automotive paint tends to absorb heat at the molecular level, leading to higher temperatures.

While heat-reflective technologies are already in use in industries such as construction, implementing this new paint in automotive applications presents particular challenges. A major hurdle is its current thickness, which is six times that of traditional automotive paint. Despite this limitation, the development team is confident in their capacity to refine the technology, with plans to offer it to consumers in a variety of colors in the future.

Additionally, other companies and research institutions, such as Toyota, Hyundai, and a team from Purdue University, are also researching passive cooling technologies for vehicles. Notably, Purdue's team unveiled a white paint in 2022 that reflects 97.9% of sunlight, further highlighting the growing interest in heat management solutions within the automotive industry.