Ever wished you could change the colour of your car? Ever been sitting in traffic and thought ‘I wish my car wasn’t white, I wish it was black’? Well, if you’re one of the six people who answered yes to those questions you’re in luck. BMW have just the vehicle for you. Their newest car is equipped with technology that can do just that.
BMW pulled back the curtain on their all new all-electric iX SUV in Las Vegas. It was all part of the Consumer Electronics Show, which sounds like the sort of place that shows off new blenders and washing machines. This new BMW doesn’t blend or wash but it does change colour, sort of.
The car uses the same technology as Amazon’s Kindle and it works by activing electronic ink in a wraparound shell. You press the button inside the car and outside the car the colour can move between black and white and also stripes. Which isn’t exactly the entire rainbow of options, it’s more like the grown-up equivalent of those Matchbox cars that would change colour if you put them in the freezer for a little bit.
Stella Clark, BMW’s project lead on the SUV, said that “You decide what you want to wear, what your social media status is – and you can decide what your car looks like.” Just as long as your imagination is limited to two colours.
If this idea of a car that can be either black or white depending on whether or not you accidentally lean on a button inside your car peaks your interest, well, guess what? You can’t have one. It’s currently not available for public sale. So now you’ll just have to settle for the old-fashioned method of buying a car in a colour you already like and then kind of not think about it much after that.