BMW unveils car colour changing technology at CES 2022

As part of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the automobile manufacturer BMW has revealed a first look at its car body surface colour changing technology, known as E Ink.

Said to be able to let the driver tailor the interior and exterior of their car to their personal mood and experience, E Ink uses electrophoretic technology to alter the body wrap of the iX Flow by sending electrical signals to change colour pigments. As BMW AG's member of the board of management, Frank Weber said, "Digital experiences won't just be limited to displays in the future."

According to the press release, the E Ink technology is based on the same system used in eReaders, as the surface of the iX Flow is coated with millions of microcapsules of oppositely charged white and black pigments, which when subject to an electrical field change the shade of the vehicle.

As the head of project for the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink, Stella Clarke notes, this tech will open new avenues in the personalisation and customisation of cars, and will give "the driver the freedom to express different facets of their personality or even their enjoyment of change outwardly, and to redefine this each time they sit into their car." But more than that, this offers some more practical benefits as well, such as being able to tailor the colour of the car to the environment to elevate efficiency, for example to change the car to a brighter colour better at reflecting sunlight, to therefore reduce the overall temperature of the car.

Take a look at the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink in the images below and in action here (courtesy of the Reddit user Matematt3).