Smarter paintshops: The technologies driving sustainable automotive production
Reducing emissions and cutting costs go hand in hand in the latest moves being made by Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen to clean up paintshop operations
Paintshops account for a lot of energy and water consumption in the vehicle-making process, while also generating around 65% of a plant’s overall CO2. The list of emissions from automotive paintshops is long and includes volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter from overspray and exhaust gases, as well as incurring a high carbon cost from the high energy used in the paint booths and drying chambers.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), metals and metal compounds account for about 71% of the total quantity chemical waste managed by the automotive industry as measured by its Toxics Release Inventory Program. However, the EPA says that car plants release far more organic solvent chemicals than metals and metal compounds, mainly because of the use of VOCs in paints and other coating solutions. Controlling the release of these compounds is a priority for automotive companies and that is being helped by raw material, product and process modifications. Those modifications have also helped carmakers save the energy use and carbon emissions from paint booths and there have been a number of recent innovations that carmakers and their suppliers have taken in this direction.
Fresh air in Kentucky
Toyota says it is committed to the reduction of energy use across its operations as part of its Environmental Challenge 2050 initiative. To do so, it is plucking ideas out of thin air.
At its US plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, the carmaker has recently achieved an 80% saving in energy costs in its paintshop by cutting the intake of air from outside the building by more than 55% and instead channelling it from inside the factory. The innovation has earned Toyota’s engineering team in Kentucky a 2026 Better Project Award from the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings and Plants initiative.
Previously, the Fresh Air Supply House (Fash) on Line 1 at Toyota Kentucky drew in 100% of the air it needed for the paint shop from outside and used more energy in conditioning that air to that specific range of temperature and humidity optimal for the spray conditions required by Toyota’s quality standards.
“Ranges vary slightly between different paint vendors, but it often stays near the 70°F [21°C] and 70% humidity area,” says Adam Suleiman, project lead and production engineer on the Paint Booth Air Conversion Project. “With seasonal changes, the air handling units must be capable of handling many different instances of conditioning types.”
Crossing the streams
To cut costs on the intake and treatment of air from outside to the Fash, Toyota’s engineering team looked at the different heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems used at the plant.
Airstreams into the factory are often completely separated, with their own dedicated inlet units. One system is used to maintain a comfortable working temperature in the building for employees, while another is used for the paint booths. That paint booth air flow is drawn in using large-scale air-conditioning units that heat, cool and humidify/de-humidify the air to make it suitable for painting. Air from paintshop and the main building are ultimately expelled again through exhaust units which also run separately.
Sulieman says that during the winter months, gas expenditure for the paint shop on Line 1 adds up to an average of 2,000 MMBtu per day (which stands for 1 Million British Thermal Units, a thermal unit of measurement for natural gas). That includes gas used for the paintshop oven and regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) used to eliminate VOCs from paint booth and curing oven exhausts. All of which adds to the energy expenditure. Toyota’s engineering team found that their air conditioning costs were in excess for “one-time-through” uses.
Instead, the team looked at allowing air already in the main building to enter the Fash unit, at the same time reducing the need for air exhaust from the building. That required changes to the equipment. The duct work of the Fash unit was modified to allow it to open into the general building with materials purchased through its provider Eliteair.
The new air-flow system was soft launched in October last year, with the full launch made in January this year. According to Suleiman, the unit calculated ROI is just under four years, though that could be brought down to 2.5 years if outside temperatures continue to rise as they did over winter 2025-2026.
Toyota is now working on its next-generation paint facility at the Kentucky plant and broke ground on the development in late June this year. The carmaker says the new facility is designed to become a global benchmark for the company by enhancing efficiency and product flexibility. It will reduce carbon emissions by 30% and save approximately 1.5m gallons of water annually.
Controlling emissions in Europe
Over in Europe, figures from European Automobile Manufacturers Association (Acea) show that the amount of VOCs emitted by the automotive sector, mainly from paintshops, amounted to 1.65 tons per year in 2023. With new technologies, such as the replacement of solvent-based paints with solvent-free, water-based equivalents, manufacturers have been able to reduce total VOC emissions by 61% over the 18 years up to 2023, according to Acea. Many are keen to maintain that momentum.
As reported in November last year, Volkswagen is reducing CO2 at its Autoeuropa plant in Palmela, Portugal and in the paintshop that is thanks to an integrated paintshop application supported by hardware and process optimisation software provided by Dürr.
The paintshop includes an offline measurement cell, a paint mixing room, as well as work platforms and internal conveyor systems. The introduction of the new paintshop project is running in three phases and is scheduled for completion by mid-2027.
In terms of reducing waste and emissions, Volkswagen is using Dürr’s high-speed atomizer EcoBell 4 Pro Hu 2x2K technology for its clearcoat process to enable the application of both glossy and matte clearcoats using a single applicator. The applicator uses an air-driven turbine combined with a special bell cup and air-shaping ring system to apply the clearcoat.
According to Dürr, the equipment achieves high-energy transfer (HTE) of the clearcoat with a 90% application efficiency. Dürr explains that the specialised bell disc and shaping air ring system enable a lower rotational speed, a shorter painting distance, and a 30% reduction in shaping air consumption. This results in less clearcoat being used per body. Reduced overspray also lowers the demand for air treatment, resulting in additional energy savings. The system also reduces the use of rinsing agent during product changes.
Dürr is also applying its EcoSmartCure system to dry the clearcoat. The painted vehicle body passes through an oven with targeted heating on a stop-and-go basis. It reduces energy consumption through demand-based temperature control. The result is shorter a drying time and reduced CO2 emissions, according to Dürr.
Cross-plant software
Volkswagen is using Dürr’s DXQcontrol software, which connects the new paintshop with the main paint system and a separate two-tone system for roof painting. The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) technology monitors, controls and analyses all three systems together.
“With the cross-plant software solution, we are bringing together three separate paintshops with different technological baselines, an extremely complex task,” says Felix Losch, senior manager digital products at Dürr. “But it is precisely this integration that adds the greatest value for the customer: one system instead of three, one user interface instead of multiple platforms and full transparency across all processes.”
According to Losch, this not only cuts costs but also makes production more flexible and efficient.
A spokesperson for VW Autoeuropa adds that with the investment in the new paintshop line, the plant is reinforcing its commitment to sustainability and decarbonisation of operations, with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions to zero.
“In parallel, the incorporation of the most advanced technologies currently available will enable the plant to increase its energy efficiency, optimise the consumption of paint and solvents, and significantly reduce the environmental impact associated with industrial activity, namely through the reduction of VOC emissions,” says the spokesperson.
Two-tone at Renault
Renault has also been involved in a paintshop project with Dürr involving two-tone paint applications. Along with BASF Coatings, the collaboration has cut energy consumption by around 25% and reduced CO2 by roughly 300 tons at Renault’s Ampere plant in Maubeuge, France. Renault is benefitting from an overspray-free application (OFLA) wet-on-wet process there for vehicles featuring a two-tone colour scheme, including on its Renault 4 E-Tech electric model.
Dürr is providing a jet applicator called EcoPaintJet Pro along with robotic automation for highly accurate paint application that avoids any overspray. At the same time, BASF Coating reports that its ColorSharp paint is engineered for 100% transfer efficiency and can reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. A jet of paint of between 1-50mm in width is applied to the car body. BASF says It produces a sharp paint edge without masking, cutting waste and helping avoid defects typically associated with conventional spray basecoats.
The mist-free, high-precision jet-based application system from Dürr is inspired by digital printing technology and Renault is using the term Jetprint to refer to the process.
The combined technology is giving Renault pinpoint accuracy in applying coatings, such as contrasting roofs and A-C pillar, without overspray.
BASF says the process eliminates the need for masking materials allowing customers more capacity in their paint shop for two-tone cars. Previously a two-tone finish was obtained by putting vehicles through the paintshop twice. Renault explains that car bodies were painted in the main colour selected by the customer and then dried in an oven. Then tarpaulins and masking tape were used to cover the vehicle before sending the car back for a second coat, a labour and energy-intensive process.
Now two robots paint the roof and bonnet of the vehicle in just six minutes, and Renault is benefitting from a reduction of up to 70% in process costs, while waste has been cut by 1.6kg per vehicle through the elimination of masking materials. “Energy consumption has decreased by up to 80% and CO2 equivalent emissions have been lowered by around 80%,” says Steffen Rohlmann, project lead in the Global Development Basecoat Team at BASF Coatings.
Making paintshops more sustainable is a route to more cost-efficient manufacturing and carmakers on both sides of the Atlantic are working with their suppliers on cutting energy, emissions and material waste to make the paint shop a proving ground for practical innovation.
Renewable power at BASF Coatings
At the end of April this year, BASF Coatings completed the transition of its plants in Europe over to using electricity entirely from renewable sources. The switch involves 12 plants across five countries. The transition is part of its Carbon Management Roadmap, which aims to reduce CO2 output from BASF Coatings’ global operations. BASF Coatings has reduced its Scope 2 emissions by 80% between 2018 and 2025. “This significant reduction underlines the effectiveness of switching to renewable electricity as a key lever in lowering emissions and improving the overall carbon footprint of operations,” says Merve Alp, global sustainability manager, Climate & Decarbonization, BASF Coatings.
BASF is sourcing renewable electricity via Guarantees of Origin (GoO) or International Renewable Energy Certificates (iRECs), primarily from wind and solar energy. Alp says that relying on these well-established and scalable renewable energy technologies, BASF Coatings ensures a stable and sustainable energy supply while significantly reducing the environmental impact of its production processes.
At its French sites, BASF says it will continue to rely on the country’s low-CO2 national power mix. Earlier this year France’s power transmission grid operator RTE published its 2025 electricity balance and reported that low-carbon generation reached a historic high of 521.1 TWh and fossil fuel thermal production hit its lowest level in 75 years. It meant the share of low-carbon electricity was steady at over 95%, according to independent energy and climate research company Enerdata.
Consistency on carbon data
In January, the division launched a digital tool to calculate product carbon footprint (PCF) and reports that it is now gathering real-time, auditable data on CO2 for 120,000 global sales products. It says that all product‑related greenhouse gas emissions, from raw material procurement and transport to energy use in production, are calculated “uniformly, consistently and with system support”. That includes complex, multi‑variant products such as paints with many colour variants. The carbon data helps customers hit their sustainability targets, according to BASF Coatings.
Speaking in January, Dr Markus Piepenbrink, head of global sustainability, BASF Coatings, said: “For our customers, climate protection is becoming ever more important. With our tools, we can provide them with reliable data and, on that basis, support them with solutions. Today, for example, we already offer customers the possibility to reduce the CO2 footprint of selected products through the use of alternative raw materials and renewable energy.”
The PCF tool integrates CO2 data for more than 25,000 globally sourced raw materials. In addition, the tool takes into account the individual energy flows from more than 30 BASF Coatings production sites worldwide. The company says that enables precise capture of emissions, even for product variants.
BASF Coatings says the global rollout of the new system at all its production sites was carried out with the system supplier SAP and it has now adopted SAP Sustainability Footprint Management (SFM).
BASF Coatings has also introduced a Global Life Cycle Assessment of Automotive Surface Solutions (Glass) tool for OEMs and an EcoImpact Assessment tool for body shops, to support customers. According to the company these two tools enable a modular view and analysis along the entire painting process and provide customers with data‑driven approaches towards process optimisation.
