Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the company that owns Jaguar and Land Rover has announced that they are working on a new AC system that is 97% effective in preventing the spread of bacteria and viruses by up to 97%, including COVID-19 reports indicate.

The system which is currently in the prototyping stage pairs traditional AC functionalities – heating and ventilation with Panasonic’s air purifier, Nanoe X. The air purifier uses chemicals in water droplets to neutralise viruses and lab tests by Taxcell have shown that the system is able to inhibit COVID-19 by almost 100%. JLR’s tests showed that the system was able to inhibit COVID-19 by 97%.

How it Works

Here’s a short chemistry class, Nanoe X uses high voltage electricity to create hydroxyl (OH) radicals, airborne chemicals contained within nano-sized water droplets. These radicals deactivate viruses by disrupting their shells and genomes. They also inhibit and deodorize allergens.

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This isn’t the first time we are seeing a company work on a COVID-19 filter for cars since the pandemic struck. UFI Filters, an Italian car part maker, launched an antivirus cabin filter in India in 2019. UFI’s system was made up of silver and copper ion-treated fibres,. The system, dubbed, Sofima D+fend, is claimed to kill 99.5% of viruses from the Coronavirus family.

“Hydroxyl radicals are one of the most important natural oxidants in chemistry and have been helping to clean our atmosphere for millennia, removing pollutants and other harmful substances. The creation of this technology and our advanced research is the first step in deploying this scientific phenomenon within vehicle cabins of the future,” said Jaguar Land Rover research engineer, Alexander Owen.

JLR hasn’t confirmed when the new AC system will be available in their cars or which particular cars will be the first to get them but we can guess the next generation of high-end Jaguars and Land Rovers might just include the system as an option.