TCS Guide: Does it really get hotter in dark cars?

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My colleague recommended that I paint the new car white. Light colored cars are less hot in summer. Is this really that important?
Andreas Studer, Basel

A black car absorbs significantly more solar radiation and therefore stores much more energy than a white painted car. Under the same conditions, the black body is therefore hotter than the white. In tests, a European summer day with an outside temperature of 25 degrees Celsius was simulated in the laboratory using UV headlights. After 20 minutes in the “bright sun” the temperature in the white paint increased from 25 to 55 degrees. The black car was already measured at 70 degrees!

Little impact indoors

Interesting: In testing, paint color had little effect on interior temperatures. After a relatively short time, both light and dark got so hot in the car that it became dangerous for dogs in, for example, dog crates. An hour later, temperatures of around 80 degrees were measured on the instrument panel of both vehicles, still around 45 degrees at head height!

A little tip for today’s hot day: With grilles on the side windows or a sunscreen on the windshield, interior temperatures can be kept at a more bearable level. In a test with protective film on the windshield of a car parked in the sun, they flattened at 32 degrees at head level.

Source: Blick