At the CES 2022 exhibition dedicated to technology, the German car company BMW announced that a new technology is changing the color of the car with a touch.

The company introduced the technology using its new 100% electric iX Flow concept car.

The iX-Flo will be built soon, but vehicles with color-changing paint will not reach car dealership showroom floors for long. The German company describes the Chamilion-shaped redesign technology as an “extensive research-and-design project”.

Automotive variable coating technology is a new application of familiar technology. The technology relies on e-ink used in “electric paper” technology to power e-readers like the Kindle Amazon.

The ink is placed in a micro capsule that is the thickness of a human hair. The white pigments inside these nano capsules have a negative charge and the black pigments have a positive charge.

The switch that the user presses changes the electric field around the capsules, which pushes some pigment to the surface, where the color of the paint changes. This technology is currently available in black, white and a few shades of gray.

According to Stella Clark, who led the project within the German company, “This technology gives drivers the freedom to express different aspects of their personality or to enjoy change, and to redefine themselves whenever they get in their cars.”

BMW also notes that this feature has more practical applications. Because white paint reflects light, it can cool the interior in hot weather, reducing the amount of energy required for air conditioning. Black, on the other hand, absorbs light and reduces the amount of energy needed to warm the car comfortably in the winter.