Nissan Leaf electric car comes with a paint job, which is capable of glowing in the dark and is getting ‘glowing’ reviews. The paint has been created from completely organic materials and glows green when it’s dark.
As per Nissan, solar panels are being installed at charging stations where the car can be charged for free. The glow-in-the-dark Leaf highlights this aspect by glowing green in the dark. It was designed in collaboration with the inventor Hamish Scott who is known for coming up with the Starpath glow-in-the-dark coating that was sprayed on roads and footpaths.
Scott is known for keeping the recipe of his products to himself, however, he did tell that the paint used for the car has more or less the same ingredients as the Starpath spray did. He further disclosed that strontium aluminate is present among other active ingredients in the mix. This ingredient is odorless, biologically and chemically inert and is therefore, a preferable choice in glow-in-the-dark materials. The paint basically absorbs the UV energy when it is exposed to light and is then capable of glowing for 8-10 hours when in the dark.
Scott claimed that he had been working on the coating that could be used upon cars even before Nissan approached him. He further shared that it took him about 12 months to come up with the final product. He said, “If you walked up and touched the car it would feel exactly like a car paint.”
He foresees a number of safety uses linked with this coating and said, “This is no gimmick. This is a serious technology that is going to be used in an awful lot of places.”
While a number of third party companies can provide car owners with paint jobs that are capable of glowing in the dark, Nissan claims that it is the first car manufacturer that is directly carrying out the application of this technology on its cars. The company says that if the paint was made commercially available, it would come with a lifespan of 25 years.
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