BMW’s Color Changing SUV

BMW iX Flow with E Ink is the latest innovation from BMW, showing the future of digitization. A process with electronically changeable skins adjusts a vehicle’s color according to the weather, the driver’s mood, or their destination. Shown for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, it is an example of BMW owners changing the color to match their moods, the weather and even the destination. Napleton News thinks it’s pretty rad to change colors on a whim. If we want to, why wouldn’t other buyers everywhere wouldn’t do it, too?

BMW iX Flow with E Ink debuts at CES 2022

The Consumer Electronics Show is an international show held every winter in Las Vegas because why not? Here, manufacturers from around the world show the latest in electronics. They can range from Televisions and home theatre to kitchen appliances, cameras and more. Auto manufacturers worldwide have hightailed it to Lost Wages within the past few years with their latest models and tech breakthroughs. Their presence has taken the CES to an entirely new level.

How the BMW iX Flow works.

With the new BMW iX Flow with E Ink, the Munich-based manufacturer is offering a future technology that uses digitalization to adapt the exterior of a vehicle to different situations and wishes. Up to this point, BMW My Modes has allowed drivers to adjust the interior of certain models to a specific mood. iX Flow brings the fun outward so that the public can see it too.

The iX Flow is a future-forward technology that expands an owner’s relationship with their vehicle. According to Frank Weber of the Board of Management of BMW AG, “Digital experiences won’t just be limited to displays in the future. With the BMW iX Flow, we are bringing the car body to life.”

Specially developed body wrap tailored to the contours of the all-electric iX Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) make the color changes are made possible by. When stimulated electrically, the electrophoretic technology brings different color pigments to the surface, causing a change in pigment.

The technology can even go so far as to change colors according to the type of event it was going to. For example, if you were to attend a funeral, you might change the vehicle’s color to a more somber tone rather than an excessively loud one. We realize it’s a bit of a stretch, but it does illustrate the point.

Color changes help to increase efficiency

Color changes can also help increase vehicle efficiency. Take, for example, a hot, humid Florida day. A BMW iX Flow can transform to a lighter color, reflecting sunlight, preventing heat absorption in the process. On the other hand, an owner in the middle of a Chicago winter can do the inverse. There, they can convert their vehicle into a darker hue to help absorb more warmth from the sun.

Both cases will help cut the amount of cooling and heating required from the iX’s climate control. The E Ink technology itself is incredibly energy efficient. The system uses energy to change from one color to another. No other energy is used once the color changes.

Millions of paint capsules all wrapped up.

Electrophoretic coloring is a technology most well­ known from the displays used in eReaders. BMW E lnk contains many million microcapsules with a diameter equivalent to the thickness of a human hair. Negatively charged white pigments or positively charged black pigments are located within the microcapsules. Depending on the chosen setting, stimulation by 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 hue.

The BMW iX E Ink technology is one example of future thought working its way into daily life. Watch this space to stay abreast of the latest automotive technologies as soon as we learn about them. Check back with Napleton News often.