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BMW Unveils World’s First “Colour-changing” Car, The BMW iX Flow, Here Is How It Works
BMW unveils World’s First “Colour-changing” car, the BMW iX Flow, at the CES in Las Vegas.
The concept car features color-changing “E Ink” (electronic ink technology) exterior.
It is essentially a wrap that can change from white to black, with shades of gray in between.
BMW said that the technology will be expanded to cover a spectrum of colour, including blue and red.
German carmaker BMW has unveiled the world’s first “colour-changing” car, the BMW iX Flow concept car, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The concept car features color-changing “E Ink” (electronic ink technology) exterior, which is essentially a wrap that can change from white to black, with shades of gray in between.
BMW iX Flow
“This is really energy efficient colour change using the technology E Ink,” said BMW research engineer Stella Clarke.
“So we took this material – it’s kind of a thick paper – and our challenge was to get this on a 3D object like our cars.”
The iX Flow on display at CES could only alternate between gray and white, but BMW said that the technology will be expanded to cover a spectrum of colour, including blue and red.
When stimulated by electrical signals controlled by a phone app, the material brings different pigments to the surface. In the future, Clarke said the changes would also be controlled by a button on the car’s dashboard or perhaps even by hand gestures.
“My favourite use case is the use of colour to influence sunlight reflections,” said Clarke.
“On a hot, sunny day like today, you could switch the colour white to reflect sunlight. On a cold day, you could switch it black to absorb the heat.”
