BMW's Color-Changing Car Is One Step Closer To Reality

In 2022, BMW's iX Flow showed that a car with color-changing bodywork was possible. The electric SUV was shown at CES in Las Vegas, using the same e-ink technology used by Kindle e-readers to alter a car's color on the fly. Then, it was just a concept. At Auto China, BMW announced that its E Ink technology is now "production-ready."

BMW has made a few notable alterations to past attempts in order to get there. For one, the e-ink panel is now limited to a single piece of bodywork: the hood. Previous concepts, like the i5 Flow Nostokana, used color e-ink panels across the whole body. Moreover, these were applied like a wrap: the entire car was covered in a foil containing the e-ink cells, which could be manipulated with a small electrical current. That was a little too expensive for mass production, so BMW shrunk the concept down and made another important change, integrating the e-ink panels directly into the bodywork. Presumably, it's now more durable and cheaper to make as a result. BMW says the hood has undergone "stringent" quality testing and that it can meet the “requirements of automotive engineering and everyday use.”

This time around, selections are limited to eight pre-configured animations that can be changed by the driver. These appear to be greyscale animations, lacking color, and feature iconic pieces of the Chinese skyline for the brand's appearance at Auto China. We imagine steps like this will make it to the consumer market long before a fully color-changing car will. BMW's tech is no doubt pricey at this point, and it has been limited in its capability to make it ready for production. We're not sure how it'll look in person, and on top of that, e-ink colors are notoriously muted, which may be the reason for BMW's greyscale "production-ready" version.