The auto maker is testing a new type of paint that repels mud, rain, and dirt to turn the Nissan Note into a "self-cleaning" car.

Leah Gonzalez 

Cars don’t wash themselves. Owners have to either put in the time and effort to clean them up themselves at their own driveways or shell out a few bucks so the nearest car wash can take care of it.

That may all change with a new technology that Nissan in Europe has been testing on the Nissan Note. The car brand is doing tests on an innovative paint technology that repels rain, mud and dirt.

The paint technology, called Ultra-Ever Dry®, is a product marketed and sold by UltraTech International Inc. and is a specially-engineered super hydrophobic and oleophic paint, which means it is designed to repel water and oil.

Nissan Europe applied the paint to the Nissan Note to transform it into the “world’s first self-cleaning car.” The paint creates a protective layer that stops water and road dirt from making marks on the surface of the car.

Engineers at the Nissan Technical Centre Europe are assessing the effectiveness of the paint technology as a potential application that car owners can get aftermarket. It’s the first time that the technology is being applied on the body of an automobile.

The paint has worked well against common factors such as rain, spray, frost, sleet and standing water. Researchers at the Nissan Technical Centre will continue to test the “self-cleaning” car in different conditions over the next few months.

Nissan Europe has released a video showing what the paint can do for a car. In the video, they applied the Ultra-Ever Dry paint to half of the car and took the car out for a spin, making sure to drive through all sorts of puddles and muddy road tracks. The difference between the two halves is clear, with one half is covered in dirt and the other half still shiny.

At the moment, the auto maker has no plans to include the self-cleaning paint technology as a standard in the Nissan Note, but it won’t close its doors to the possibility of having it as an aftermarket option in the future.