BMW unveiled a concept iX Flow that could change the color of its paint job with the press of a button at CES 2022. The car is wrapped in a type of electronic paper that can change the exterior colors to black, white, and some shades of gray in an instant. BMW’s experimental color-changing paint technology for future vehicles uses E-Ink, the same tech that powers the screens of e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle. Besides looking unbelievable like it’s straight out of a video game, the tech could help a vehicle adapt to different weather conditions, turning white to reflect sunlight on hot sunny days and gray/black to absorb sunlight and heat on cooler days. However, the project is still in its advanced research and design phase and will most likely not roll out as a commercial feature anytime soon.
How It Works: Just like the E-Ink tech in e-readers, the color-changing body wrap is coated in millions of microcapsules, each with a diameter about the width of a human hair. The microcapsules contain positively-charged black or negatively-charged white pigments. When users choose a setting, an electric field is stimulated, changing the car’s exterior color by forcing either the black or white pigments to collect at the capsules’ surfaces.
