Nissan the first manufacturer to partner with inventor to create paint that uses UV energy absorbed during daylight to glow at night

Nissan has become the first manufacturer to apply glow-in-the-dark car paint to show the all-electric Leaf is helping more and more people convert to solar energy at home. The manufacturer worked with inventor Hamish Scott, creator of Starpath, a spray-applied coating that absorbs UV energy during the day so that it glows for between eight and 10 hours when the sun goes down.

While glowing car paint is already available, as are glow-in-the-dark car wraps, the bespoke, ultraviolet-energised paint created especially for Nissan is unique thanks to its secret formula made up of entirely organic materials. It contains a very rare natural earth product called Strontium Aluminate, which is solid, odourless and chemically and biologically inert.

Various third-party companies may have applied non-organic glow-in-the-dark paint to vehicles before, but Nissan is the first car maker to directly apply such technology. Nissan’s unique paint, if made commercially available, would last for 25 years.

A research revealed recently by Nissan also showed that 89% of Leaf owners charge their cars at home overnight. Although solar panels do not store energy or provide it outside of daylight, any leftover power generated during the day is fed back into the national grid and homeowners can get a Government payment for it, meaning that the overnight charge is already paid for.