Hyundai, Kia, And Nissan Showcase Clever Ways To Keep Your Car Cool In The Heat

The automotive landscape is bristling with innovation. Every week, a talented engineer comes up with a way to make our lives easier while driving, be it an intelligent airbag design or sophisticated software. Hyundai and Kia are working on temperature control technologies that could one day end up on the Ioniq 6 or EV9 in your driveway. Let’s take a closer look.

Three separate technologies have been created, all to enhance occupant comfort and, importantly, also save energy. The latter is particularly important as Hyundai and Kia move towards electrification and battery-electric vehicles.

• Kia

  Kia is a South Korean automaker headquartered in Seoul. It was originally founded 80 years ago as a bicycle manufacturer, but today is the second-largest automaker in South Korea, right behind Hyundai.

  Founded

  1944

  Headquarters

  Seoul, South Korea

  Owned By

  Hyundai Motor Group

• 

  Nissan

  Nissan Motor Corporation is a Japanese automaker founded in 1933 and the parent automaker of Infiniti and formerly Datsun. Nissan produces a wide variety of mass-market vehicles, including popular SUVs like the Rogue, sedans like the Sentra, and trucks like the Nissan Frontier, but is also responsible for iconic sports cars like the Nissan Z and GT-R. Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance (the name changed when Mitsubishi joined in 2016).

  Founded

  26 December 1933

  Headquarters

  Nishi-ku, Yokohama

  Owned By

  Publicly Traded

• 

  Hyundai

  Hyundai Motor Company was founded in 1967 by Chung Ju-yung, 20 years after the birth of the Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company. The automotive marque’s first model was the Cortina, birthed with the help of Ford in 1968, while its first self-developed car arrived the year after as the Pony. Since then, the company has found success with affordable cars and has consistently become known for reliability and value. Nowadays, its ventures vary from combustion, hybrid, all-electric, and hydrogen mobility solutions to robotics.

  Founded

  29 December 1967

  Headquarters

  Seoul, South Korea

  Owned By

  Hyundai Motor Group

Nano Cooling Film

The Nano Cooling Film is rather innovative. It works like a traditional tint and blocks infrared radiation from outside the car. However, unlike a conventional tint, the Nano Cooling Film lets heat inside the vehicle escape, keeping the cabin cool for when the occupants return. More importantly, it doesn’t look like a tint and could theoretically be legal in any state as the windows still allow light through.

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The film is made up of three layers, two of which reflect solar energy and another that emits a mid-infrared wavelength. Based on testing by Hyundai Motor and Kia, the Nano Cooling Film can lower in-car temperatures by as much as 53 degrees Fahrenheit, which is remarkable. That means returning to a more comfortable car and using less energy to run the climate control system.

Intelligent Radiant Heating System

While the Nano Cooling Film keeps the car cool in summer, what have Kia and Hyundai dreamed up to keep a vehicle warm in winter? The Radiant Heating System makes use of a heating element that warms the passengers’ legs quickly at low temperatures. It works alongside the conventional heating system, with the automaker noting that radiant heating can “conserve up to 17% more energy to reach a desired temperature”. A boon for chilly passengers, the more important benefit here is the ability to increase the range of electric cars in winter; Lexus has previewed something similar in the all-electric RZ.

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The Radiant Heating System features a high-temperature heating element capable of 230 degrees Fahrenheit. Along with a burn prevention system, the element is wrapped in a fabric material that provides heat via infrared rays. The burn prevention system can detect body contact and immediately lower the temperature to prevent painful burns. Hyundai and Kia plan to introduce this system in upcoming models. A prototype Kia EV9 was fitted with nine heating panels to showcase the technology.

Targeted Areas:

• Steering column base
• Driver’s door
• Center console
• Passenger door
• Glovebox base

Another innovation is the Metal-Coated Heated Glass System. This clever feature allows the driver to remove distracting frost or moisture from the windshield in cold weather. It is more efficient and safer than conventional heating elements. What’s more, as the Metal-Coated Heated Glass is entirely transparent, occupants have a clear view of the road ahead.

The system requires just five minutes to defrost the glass (at -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit), making it four times faster than a conventional system – while using 10% less energy. What’s more, the metal-coated glass also blocks “at least” 60% of solar energy. Hyundai and Kia have both applied for patents in major markets and hope to introduce this feature in new vehicles.

Nissan Is Working On Something Similar

The Japanese automaker is currently developing clever paint that features electromagnetic waves to keep the vehicle cooler. Nissan is working closely with Radi-Cool to apply this technology in the automotive world; radiative paint has been used on buildings for many years now – but adapting it for cars makes things tough.

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For a start, radiative paint generally requires a thick application and lacks the luster one would expect from a vehicle’s paint. It also needs to be applied with a paint roller which is not exactly ideal for a brand-new car. However, Nissan has managed to develop a version that can be used in a traditional spray gun. It’s still much thicker than a traditional automotive paint finish – six times thicker.

Nissan’s Clever Paint Redirect Heat Rays From The Cabin

The paint has two microstructure particles that react to light (like sunlight). One reflects these near-infrared rays while the other creates “electromagnetic waves that redirect the rays through the atmosphere and back to space.” As a result, Nissan claims heat transfer is cut down, minimizing the need to use the energy-sapping climate control system (important in an EV).

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While not available on a production vehicle, Nissan is currently trialing the technology in the real world, with support vehicles at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan. These cars are exposed to scorching sunlight all day, making it the perfect setting to see just how well the radiative paint works. It just goes to show that making more eco-friendly and efficient cars goes beyond electrification and efficient powerplants – every little bit makes a difference.