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It is an absolute eye-catcher at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the world's largest trade fair for technology and innovations.
A car that changes color - complete or with samples.
The BMW stand is accordingly besieged here.
The color change is made possible by a special e-ink film, i.e. electronic ink.
Stella Clarke, BMW Development
Engineer »This is the material we know from e-readers.
You can read a Kindle really well in the sun because the color actually changes there.
So we took this material - a kind of thick paper - and our challenge was to apply it to a 3D object like our cars. "
The outer skin of the “BMW iX Flow” can be designed at any time using the app.
Stella Clarke, BMW development engineer
»I now use the app to set 'various effects'.
First it is white, then it changes to a darker color, now white again.
Now we choose the bicolor mode, which makes the top lighter and the lower part darker.
And what a lot of people like is the racing stripes that give it a sporty image, and now we are seeing a dynamic interpretation of the sporty racing stripes. "
First and foremost, of course, a gimmick.
But according to BMW, the effect should even have practical benefits.
Stella Clarke, BMW Development
Engineer “On a hot, sunny day like today, you can paint the car white to reflect the sunlight. On a cold day, you can make it black to absorb the heat to help with air conditioning. That helps sustainability. The great thing about this technology is that it is bistable. If you switch them to white and turn off the power, the car will stay white. It doesn't need any energy to hold a certain color. "
The color display can also be used to illustrate the charge level, for example. Taxis could show advertising messages or flash carsharing cars' attention to their location via app commands. The question remains: is it even allowed to use something like this in road traffic?
Stella Clarke, BMW Development
Engineer »As far as the legal issues are concerned - that has to be discussed, of course.
We just know that light cannot be placed all over the outside because it is too distracting.
But the color change is more subtle than light.
But it's still a color change, and it's still something that is unexpected. "
In the future, according to BMW, it should also be possible to display all possible other colors.
The color change BMW is not to be expected on the market anytime soon.
Because the technology is not yet ready for mass production.