ABSTRACT The use of air conditioning for vehicles in hot climates is a significant contributor to both overall fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. It can be seen, however, that much of the energy required by the air conditioning goes not into cooling the occupants but cooling the vehicle structure. Most air conditioning loads are highest after the vehicle has soaked in the sun for a period of time. Consequently, the focus must be on limiting heat penetration into the vehicle in order to reduce the peak and steady state cooling loads. For this paper a modelling approach is used to assess the impact of various palliative countermeasures. A Radtherm heat transfer model was constructed for a saloon type vehicle to mimic a solar soak and subsequent pull-down for a simulated climatic chamber test. The base vehicle air conditioning load was identified before various material changes to the vehicle structure were implemented. The impact of each, and the results for an optimum combination, is presented in terms of average interior air and selected component surface temperatures at the end of the soak and pull-down periods. Additionally, the impact of forced ventilation pre-conditioning for the soak period, as may be driven by an integrated solar panel, was also investigated.