Renault’s Glowing Demo Truck Has Me Wondering Why We’re Not All Driving Glow-in-the-Dark Cars

Renault’s trucking division is showing off its new EV big rigs across Europe at the moment, and they’ve built a shiny promotional vehicle to do it. The Renault E-Tech T has been nicknamed “Diamond Echo,” and it wears a striking electroluminescent paint scheme that got me wondering. Why don’t see see more of this sort of thing?!

Diamond Echo’s real role is to highlight the finer points of Renault’s electric truck technology. As the brand is pushing its electric future, it only makes sense to go for a similarly futuristic paint job. Glowing paintwork is perfectly fitting in that regard. It helps the truck instantly catch the eye, particularly in the dark.

The angular Renault badge was the key influence on the design. The individual segments of the linework are independently controlled, with glowing shapes dancing across the truck’s body in Renault’s demo video.

Renault isn’t the only company to jump on this for promotional purposes, either. Lexus had an RC-F sprayed with Lumilor paint in a daring design some years ago, even going so far as to control the lighting effect with the driver’s heartbeat. It was all to highlight the excitement one feels while driving the RC-F. A cliche concept, but the paint looked great.

Both these concepts used pretty typical colors of green and blue, though some other colors are possible. It was all achieved with Lumilor paint. It’s the most well-known brand of electroluminescent paint and is available in eight shades in total.

If you’re unfamiliar with electroluminescent (EL) paints, they’re basically materials that can be coaxed into glowing under the influence of an electric current. EL paints can be sprayed onto flat or curved surfaces to enable them to glow, emitting light evenly in all directions. EL materials usually emit light in a single wavelength with a soft glow that is pleasant to the eye.

The effect can be striking when applied to a vehicle. Imagine being able to create vinyl-like graphics that actually emit light, and you’ve got the idea.

My one question is why we don’t see more of this out in the wild. Sure, we’re well past the era of sex spec and The Fast and the Furious, but customized cars are still a big deal. I’m surprised every second SEMA build doesn’t have something like this going on. But even then, I want to see more than that. I want every fartcan Civic and slammed Mustang to be dripping in lurid, glowing graphics.

I think I can answer that question myself, though. As explained by Lumilor, their glowing paint is a multilayer system that requires application with professional spray equipment. Controlling multiple sections of Lumilor paint to create flashing or animated effects also requires a certain level of electronics knowledge that isn’t common in the car community. If you think about the quality of the average DIY stereo install, well, that won’t cut it for implementing something like this.

There’s also the simple fact that EL technology just doesn’t put out that much light. You’ll see demos focus on dark rooms or night scenes, because that’s where EL looks best. Even in dim daylight, it can be virtually invisible.

Basically, unless you’ve got plenty of cash to invest in a custom EL paint job, you’re probably not getting this on your ride. With that said, if you’ve got the resourcefulness and guile of a YouTube chemistry vlogger, you could always try and whip up a dodgy version of your own in your home lab.

Image credits: Renault, Lexus, LumiLor via YouTube screenshot