How BMW paint that changes color works: we explain it to you

BMW has presented the iX Flow at CES 2022, a version of its SUV with E Ink paint, which is capable of changing color thanks to an electric field.

The CES 2022 held in Las Vegas has brought all kinds of news and one of the most peculiar comes from the hand of BMW. Would you like it change the color of your car with a button? Now it is something -almost- possible with this painting.

The German brand is investigating this idea and has shown its progress on a unit of its SUV iX -which they have baptized as BMW iX Flow-, which can be seen varying its color between white and gray tones. For now, the possibilities in this regard are limited, but it may be that in the not too distant future we can have something like this in our cars.

It may seem like fantasy, but this system has a logical explanation behind it. Inspiration are the e-books, which have a specific electronic ink inside. It is a similar ink -called E Ink- which has been used in this case, as it is applied in a thin layer on the bodywork of this model.

This layer is the thickness of a human hair, but contains millions of microcapsules. Each of them has inside it white pigments with a negative charge and black pigments with a positive charge, so that an electric field can act on one or the other to achieve the desired effect.

Undoubtedly, it is an interesting technology, but it also has a utility in everyday life. Beyond that we can vary the color of our car as we please, BMW points out that the use of one or another tone could encourage the vehicle to absorb more or less heat. Thus, each option would be more suitable depending on the time of year and the climate.

Even so, for now we are only before a prototype exhibited on a BMW iX and there are no plans for this to move to the market any time soon. It would not seem unreasonable, yes, but this technology must still be further developed. Who knows, maybe choosing the color of our car will not be such a complicated decision in a few years…

This article was published in Top Gear by Sergio Ríos.