At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, BMW debuted the world’s first “color changing car”. The BMW iX Flow concept car employs electronic ink technology, similar to that used by e-readers, to convert the car’s bodywork into a variety of grey and white designs.
If you’ve ever been undecided about which colour vehicle to purchase, BMW may have the vehicle for you. At the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the German carmaker demonstrated its revolutionary color changing car paint technology. Which has more in common with a Kindle than you may believe at first appearance.
The color changing car technology debuted on a prototype version of the BMW iX at CES, relying on E Ink, the electronic paper technology used in e-readers and the old Pebble watch. Just don’t expect to see it at your neighbourhood BMW dealership anytime soon: the carmaker describes it as a “advanced research and design project.”
The novel paint scheme may be activated with the press of a button. For the time being, the hues are restricted to white, black, and grey. Despite the limited palette, BMW claims it might have an impact on the economy of its electric vehicles.
A Color Changing car’s exterior now requires a traditional painting technique. But what if you could accomplish it with the press of a single button? This is a feature that BMW is looking at using E Ink technology, and the German carmaker brought a color changing car prototype to CES 2022 this week.
The BMW iX Flow is a trailblazing effort in an area that offers up completely new avenues for automotive design and personalization. An amazing color changing car!
The iX Flow is an electric SUV prototype that employs electrophoretic technology similar to that found in E Ink to change its exterior colour relatively instantly. How does it work? The iX features a space edge wrap that uses electrical stimulation to bring various colour pigments to the surface.
The color changing effect can be seen from front to back, side to side, in stripes, blotches, and other patterns. This is possible with the E Ink wrap.
The use of E Ink offers two major advantages. For starters, it opens the door to a whole new realm of personalization, allowing owners to alter the colour and style of their car based on mood, circumstance, or anything.
The automobile “becomes a representation of varied moods and circumstances in daily life,” according to Stella Clarke, project manager for the iX Flow. However, the only colors available now are black, white, and grey, which is wonderful if your “emotions and situations in daily life” included feeling low on a rainy day.
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The BMW iX Flow is the solution. It has the ability to change its looks digitally. The body is coated with an electrophoretic membrane containing human hair-sized microcapsules. When an electric field is given to a capsule, it reveals differentially charged white, black, or coloured particles. This results in an EPD (Electronic Paper Display) (EPD).
What about the other advantage? Enhanced efficiency. White automobiles will keep you cooler on hot, bright days since they reflect more sunlight. Similarly, dark exterior hues help the automobile absorb more sunshine, and hence more heat, on chilly days.
According to BMW, this can lower the amount of heating or cooling required to condition the car on hot or cold days, improving its overall operating economy, even if the change is little.
The iX Flow’s wrap is formed of e-paper segments, which is the same technology used in e-reader tablets. That’s why the iX can only change colours in gray scale. When E Ink technology advances to include more bright colours (hopefully), the iX Flow will be able to as well. After all, it’s only a concept, and as fantastic as it is, it’s unclear whether BMW will ever put color changing body panels into production.
The notion of “personalization” is quite prevalent in the automotive business right now. However, while the majority of the efforts are centred on the inside, modifying the software to recall the driver’s favourite vehicle settings, BMW is introducing the notion of personalization to the car’s outside.
Nobody knows how long this high-tech paint will last or if it will endure terrible weather. I can’t image how this would fare in a hailstorm, for example. But don’t take my advice. Color changing car!!
In the future, the modifications may be triggered by a button on the dashboard or even by hand gestures. According to BMW, no energy is required to retain the colour selected by the one driving it.
BMW does not want future consumers to have to worry about the colour of their next automobile or what movies are showing at the theatre.
The BMW iX Flow with E Ink can only change colours on a white, grey, and black scale, but authorities stated the technology might theoretically provide more hues. BMW executives stated that the “BMW Theatre Screen” is much closer to manufacturing. It has a 31-inch 32:9 panoramic display with smart TV functionality and a resolution of up to 8K. The screen descends from the vehicle’s headliner and displays in the third row.
