A vehicle's external color does not affect the amount of heat it builds up when exposed to the sun, Sanford Klein of the University of Wisconsin Madison Solar Energy Laboratory found last year.
Cars get hot due to the greenhouse effect : sunlight that passes through the window is absorbed by interior surfaces, and reflected back into the air as heat. This radiation in the form of heat cannot escape out through the glass, so that the interior temperature increases compared to the exterior. "The interior of the car heats up because radiation enters that cannot get out," says Klein. The color of the interior of the vehicle can determine the amount of heat accumulated , since the dark internal surfaces absorb more solar energy, but the color of the bodywork does not exert any influence.
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