Toyota, Ford, Mazda, GM: Using Water-Borne Car Paint
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 04. 9.06
Toyota, Ford, Mazda and GM are all now using "metallic water-borne" paints instead of "organic-solvent paints" in an effort to reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) produced by each new car. "Back in 1999, Toyota Motor Corp. started to shift top coat painting for its automobile lines in Japan [...] The company has just completed the rollout at its Motomachi plant." Mazda has developed what it calls "e-coating" to reduce VOCs, and Ford is doing something similar. GM apparently has been using low VOC emission waterborne basecoat coatings for the longest (since the 80s, according to one source). These low-VOC paints are not yet used on all coatings, but with time it should happen. Not that cars are our favorite thing in the world, but we certainly hope that other automakers will start using these processes too; anything that can reduce the amount of pollution that a car produces in its lifetime can only be good. In the meantime, Spring is here, time to ride your bike. Via ::Toyota completes water-based car paint rollout, ::Ford paints the town green, ::Mazda co-develops new, friendlier paint system, ::GM Corporate Responsibility Report 2004. See also: ::Affordable Low VOC Paint?, ::Sico zero-VOC Paint
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OK all those that bash Detroit take note, they are not totally envrionmentally bankrupt after all. Just had to say it since many people choose, as I myself have in the past, in an uninformed way bash american auto makers. Detroit does deserve a black eye for the SUVs but they're not all bad.