VW's Clever Windscreens Use Silver To Repel Ice
Heated front windscreens are great and all, but those nasty filament wires laced across the glass are pretty damn conspicuous. Yes, they’ve gotten thinner over the years, but they’re usually rather visible, particularly when the sun’s low. Happily, VW has a solution, and it involves silver.
What the clever ladies and gents at Wolfsburg have done is infuse clever ice-killing windscreens with an ultra-thin, conductive layer of silver which sits within the glass. This heats up the windscreen when electricity is passed through it, defrosting it without the need for obvious filament wires nor the dreaded scraper.
Although VW has chosen to issue a press release about it this week - perhaps to coincide with the recent cold snap much of Europe has experienced - the technology has actually been around for a while. It’s currently available as an optional extra on cars including the Golf, Tiguan and Passat, but was first used on the original Phaeton.
VW UK told us that the concept has its origins in the aerospace industry, albeit with the use of gold rather than silver.
The more you know…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
But they are also heating the environment so i won’t need my heated windscreen.
i c wat u did there
Did somebody say dieselgate?
Burn…
Damn im a day late .
Optional extra list;
Windscreen made of silver! - £1000
1000? More like 10,000
i hope i can get that on the new chevy Silverado
Well, there’s a reason it’s called the Silver-ado.
But they use silver to make the reflective surface on a mirror.. GREAT IDEA VW!!
I thought the glow from the check engine light was sufficient to keep the windshield ice free in the vw’s?
I think Passat has already had such a heated metallic layer.
Pssst, read the whole article
Also repels emissions tests!
I drove a Sharan with a windscreen that had those filaments and it doesn’t obstruct your view. Its because you are focusing much further and it becomes invisible to the eye. You are simply not registering it.
To be fair, Cadillac did this in the 70’s, but with gold. A replacement would’ve cost 6000usd in the 70’s. I’m not sure what that equates to today, but I’m sure this will be ludicrously expensive aswell.