Nissan unwraps a glow-in-the-dark vehicle

While motor enthusiasts around the world watched the happenings at the Chicago auto show, across the Atlantic, Nissan Europe stole a bit of the limelight with a standout announcement of its own: a plan to offer glow-in-the-dark paint on the company’s Leaf battery electric vehicle.

Energised during the day by solar radiation, the white paint produces a ghostly bluish glow for long as 10 hours after sunset. Glowing paint and wraps aren’t entirely new in the aftermarket, but Nissan is the first automaker to suggest it might offer this visibility-improving emulsion on a production car.

The company turned to inventor Hamish Scott to produce the finish. Scott’s company, the UK-based Pro-Teq Surfacing, produces a glow-in-the-dark spray treatment called Starpath for pedestrian walkways. Similar to the Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde’s recently completed Van Gogh bicycle path in Nuenen, Holland, Pro-Teq’s finish has bedazzled walkways in the Christ’s Pieces park in Cambridge, England. The inventor says that unlike other phosphorescent automotive pants, his formula is entirely organic, made with of chemically and biologically inert strontium aluminate.

Nissan promises a 25-year lifespan for the paint if it reaches production.