BMW has shown off its incredible colour-changing car at CES 2022, and this rapid-working tech really has to be seen to be believed.
At CES 2022, BMW wowed the crowd with a car that seemed straight out the future; the iX Flow’s colour scheme can change in front of your very eyes, shifting from black to white like a chameleon under the Las Vegas sun.
This color changing @BMWUSA #iX is wild! It’s apparently very temperature sensitive so they have a backup in a trailer in case this one gets too hot / cold pic.twitter.com/lXG1Gw0IKY
— Out of Spec Studios (@Out_of_Spec) January 4, 2022
The video above shows the prototype in action, as an ordinary looking dark grey vehicle swiftly changes in what seems like less than a second to become fully white, without any obvious imperfections in the coating.
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Describing the technology at work, BMW stated: “The surface coating of the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink contains many millions of microcapsules, with a diameter equivalent to the thickness of a human hair. Each of these microcapsules contains negatively charged white pigments and positively charged black pigments. Depending on the chosen setting, stimulation by means of an electrical field causes either the white or the black pigments to collect at the surface of the microcapsule, giving the car body the desired shade.”
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Not only does it look amazing, but BMW has even argued that there could be practical advantages to being able to change the colour, saying “A white surface reflects a lot more sunlight than a black one. By implication, heating of the vehicle and passenger compartment as a result of strong sunlight and high outside temperatures can be reduced by changing the exterior to a light colour.”
While this project is currently just described as an “advanced research and design project”, we hope to see the day where it’s available for commercial cars.
