BMW iX Flow: the body changes color
It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see in a James Bond film, but BMW has made a color-changing car that actually works in real life.
Debuting at CES 2022, the customized, fully electric BMW iX has body panels made from E Ink displays – the same technology you find in the screen of a Kindle e-reader – in a system it’s calling ‘iX Flow’.
But how does this interesting innovation work?
In order to “change” the exterior, the BMW iX Flow has millions of microcapsules, with a thickness equal to that of human hair, embedded in a film glued to the body, with an application similar to wrapping. Each of these micro elements contains white pigments (with negative electric charge) and black pigments (with positive charge), which, stimulated by an electric field, collect on the surface of the microcapsules, giving the panels the desired color.
A very useful solution for electric cars, which would thus increase the autonomy of the battery, adapting the color of the vehicle according to climate changes. In addition, the energy required by electrophoretic technology is very low, it is only needed when changing color, because just like E-books, it does not need current to light up, but instead reflects the light present in the environment.