BMW has announced an alluring innovation in its new model today. It has integrated a technology that changes the color of a car with the touch of a button. It is amazing how the German company has taken its amazing start of the year.
The company revealed the tech on a concept version of its new 100% electric iX Flow SUV. A production model of the iX Flow will be available soon. However, the vehicles and cars that have the technology of color-changing paint won’t be coming into showroom floors at car dealerships for quite a while. BMW has described its chameleon-like exterior as an “advanced research and design project.”
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The color-changing paint is a new take on a technology that has been out there before. Electronic in, which enables the “electric paper” technology that powers e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle, drives the paint BMW disclosed today. The ink is impregnated with microcapsules, that are as thick as human hair. White pigments within these microcapsules are negatively charged, and black pigments carry a positive charge. Input from the user shifts the electric field around the capsules, nudging some of the pigments to the surface where they change the color of the paint. The technology is currently available in black, white, and a few shades of grey.
“This [technology] 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 get into their car,” according to Stella Clarke, who led the project within the company.
The company also brings in more practical applications. Since white paint reflects light, it could keep interiors cooler in hot weather. This will cut down on the energy needed for air condition. Black, on the contrary, absorbs light and could reduce the amount of power needed to keep a vehicle comfortably warm.