As if you were wearing a black jacket and the next day you chose a white one.

BMW has presented at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas a prototype,

the BMW iX Flow

, whose

exterior color can change in a few seconds

in a simple way.

It is not a model that is already available on the market, but who knows if it could be a reality in the cars that the brands sell in a few years.

Like eReaders

The system

is based on the same E Ink technology developed for e-books

.

It consists of a coating of the body with

several sheets that contain millions of microcapsules

, each one with a thickness similar to that of a human hair.

Each contains negatively charged white pigments and positively charged black pigments.

Thus, what the system does is stimulate these pigments by means of an electric field so that they accumulate on the surface of the microcapsule.

The good thing about

this so-called "electrophoretic" technology

is that it does not require energy expenditure to maintain the desired color (as is the case for example with car screens or interior lighting), but that the current is only required during the changeover phase. color, which is really fast.

It may seem like a simple fad.

Or just one more step in the trend of customization of cars, which in many cases allow us to choose the color of the interior lighting and the driving mode that we most want.

But the truth is that it has other advantages beyond that.

Summer or winter

On the one hand,

in adverse weather conditions, driving a white car can make us more easily seen

by other drivers. Also

the white color can make the car a little cooler

after having parked it in the summer in full sun, saving us some of the energy required by the air conditioner to cool it.

Or it can be black, and accumulate more heat in cold climatic zones

and therefore relieve the work of the air conditioner to heat it.

This, in principle, can increase the electric range of the car (the BMW iX is a 100% electric model of the Bavarian brand) by requiring less energy from the air conditioner.

And we say in principle, because we should also take into account the added weight that this system supposes, which we do not know but which would go against said autonomy.

Stella Clarke, head of the BMW project, points out that "similar to fashion or status announcements on social media channels,

the vehicle becomes an expression of different moods

and circumstances of daily life" .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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