The concept car, called the BMW iX Flow, uses electronic ink technology commonly found in e-readers to turn the car’s exterior into a variety of patterns in gray and white.
see photosIX Flow may only alternate between gray and white at CES, tech will get more colors later
German carmaker BMW has unveiled the world’s first “colour-changing” car at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The concept car, called the BMW iX Flow, uses electronic ink technology commonly found in e-readers to turn the car’s exterior into a variety of patterns in gray and white. “This technology is a really energy efficient color change using E Ink,” said BMW Research Engineer Stella Clark. “So we took this material – it’s like a thick paper – and our challenge was to get it on a 3D object like our cars.”
When prompted by electrical signals controlled by a phone app, the material brings different pigments to the surface, causing the car to take on a different shade or design, like racing stripes.
In the future, the changes will be controlled by a button on the car’s dashboard or perhaps even with hand gestures, Clark said.
According to BMW, maintaining the color chosen by the driver requires no energy.
“My favorite use case is the use of color to affect the reflections of sunlight,” Clark said. “On a hot, sunny day like today, you can turn the color white to reflect sunlight. On a cold day, you can darken it to absorb the heat.”
Although the vehicle displayed at CES can only alternate between gray and white, the technology will be expanded to cover a spectrum of colors, according to BMW.
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