BMW unveiled its color-changing car at CES 2022, called BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink

BMW totally went crazy at CES 2022 event by unveiling its E Ink vehicle, the ‘BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink,’ which changes its exterior colors based on weather and traffic circumstances, as well as the driver’s moods.

The electrophoretic coloring layer is usually a car body wrap, yet it functions similarly to your Kindle’s e-ink displays. Millions of microcapsules, each holding a negatively charged white pigment and a positively charged black pigment, are placed in the wrap.

Applying an electrical charge to the material, depending on the setting, enables the white or black pigments to rise to the top of the microcapsule, changing the color of the vehicle in a matter of seconds.

The current version is only available in white, black, and grey. Despite the limited palette, BMW claims that it may have an impact on the efficiency of its electric vehicles.

“This gives 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,” Stella Clarke, Head of Project for the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink, said in a prepared statement. “Similar to fashion or the status ads on social media channels, the vehicle then becomes an expression of different moods and circumstances in daily life.”

E-ink exterior displays could also have more practical uses, such as changing colors based on the weather to extend a vehicle’s battery life (and thus range) in cold climates or lessen the need for air conditioning in warm environments.