Malaysia is a hot country and it will become hotter due to climate change. Among the issues that we are sure readers have experienced is the cabin and body of the car getting hot when parked under the sun in the parking lot. Nissan has now successfully developed a new paint which they claim can reduce car temperatures by up to 12 °C.
The paint contains two particles with one reflecting near-infrared light waves and the other producing electromagnetic waves. The combination of these two particles will reflect more solar energy from the surface of the car while reducing the surface temperature.
Tests have been carried out since November last year on Nissan NV100 vehicles used at Haneda International Airport. The surface of the car's body was found to be 12 °C lower while the temperature in the cabin was 5 °C lower compared to cars with conventional paint.
However, this paint is not yet ready to be used on vehicles sold by Nissan. The first issue is that it is thicker – around 400 microns compared to normal paint which is only 20 microns thick. This will increase production costs and vehicle weight. More research will be done by Nissan to make it thinner.