Don't call it a “transparent roof”, whoever designed it could bite you in the throat. The correct name is Solarbay, and it is an innovative panoramic roof that becomes completely or partially opaque, or transparent, maintaining thermal comfort on board in summer and winter. Born from the joint development between Renault and Saint-Gobain, it is currently supplied to the Scénic E-Tech Electric and the Rafale, the SUV Coupé of the transalpine company, but who knows in the future. When the sun beats down, you no longer need to pull the blackout curtain. To opaque the roof, simply press the button on the ceiling light, easily accessible by the driver and passenger, or use voice command with Google Assistant. The visual effect is also spectacular, with a subtle progressive wave that appears or disappears along its nine segments. The glass may also become partially opaque.
“Solarbay can take on four positions,” specifies Grégory Launay, Revenue Leader of Renault Rafale. “Completely transparent, completely opaque but also, separately, transparent at the front and opaque at the rear or vice versa”. And it allows you to maintain thermal comfort on board, as Anne-Chloé Kort, Product Leader of Scénic E-Tech Electric, explains: “It protects not only from the sun, but also from temperature changes on board. Thanks to the various layers of glass, whether it is -5°C in winter or +30°C in summer, the temperature inside the vehicle remains the same. Enough with the “icicle” effect in winter and the “sauna” effect in summer when you get into the car.”
The roof automatically switches to opaque mode when you turn off the engine and get out of the vehicle. By restarting the engine, it resumes its last position without any intervention from the driver or passengers. How is all this possible? Thanks to a technology called Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal: the opacification occurs through the movement of molecules between two sheets of glass caused by an electric field. Easier than that…
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