BMW Reveals Revolutionary i Vision Dee Concept and E Ink Colour Changing Exterior

Back in the days when I worked for Nissan, there was an intriguing paint released by the company and that would appear to change colour depending on the way the light hit it and later, if its thermal properties were affected. Moving swiftly into the present, and it looks as if BMW will be continuing with the development of its own version of a colour changing exterior for cars.

Just when you thought we had seen the last of manufacturers adding an ‘I’ prefix to vehicles to show that they are using cutting edge technology, along comes the BMW i Vision Dee. While the ‘i’ moniker is a bit of a personal bugbear (and your mileage may vary), it’s the exterior colour tech that BMW is showcasing alongside the i Vision Dee that is intriguing. Ideas and fashions can come full circle, and a couple of decades or so on and here we are evaluating the idea of colour changing automobile exteriors once again.

BMW’s version is called E Ink and enables the user to choose up to 32 different colours. We have seen a more basic version of E Ink previously on the iX Flow at CES 2022, but not with such a wide gamut of available colours. Fittingly, BMW once again chose the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 to showcase this tweaked version of E Ink.

E Ink works thanks to an ePaper film applied to the exterior of the car by E Ink (who are in fact a company working in collaboration with BMW) which allows the body surface of the car to be divided into 240 individually controlled segments. The result is a mind-boggling ability to display an infinite number of electrically controlled coloured patterns – offering a real wow factor visually. On a day-to-day practical level, such technology would allow you to add classic go-faster retro striping to your automobile for the weekend and switch back to something more corporate for the business car park from Monday.

Maybe this is simply an effective way to get people talking about BMW as we begin our journey into 2023, but the same arguments that plagued the Nissan ‘harlequin’ paint will surely persist, in that it will likely make the identification of individual cars – where it might be necessary to identify such cars – a bit of a nightmare for organisations such as the police.

BMW isn’t only showcasing E Ink here of course; another intriguing thing being discussed from CES 2023 is the Head-Up Display that will be available from 2025 and will allow projected technology info displays across the entire width of the windscreen. BMW says that this supports the principle of ‘hands on the wheel, eyes on the road’. Sitting somewhere in between this technology and E Ink is the ability to electronically dim windows – an idea that could perhaps make low sun from the side less of an issue or to simply enhance basic privacy where required.

The i Vision Dee itself is a currently bit of a paired down vehicle, with perhaps limited interior appeal (at this stage) to sharply focus on the tech being showcased rather than the car itself. All in all, it’s an intriguing bundle of BMW tech to greet the new year, all in the name of what BMW is calling NEUE KLASSE; the company’s next generation of future tech vehicles which are scheduled to arrive sometime in 2025.

Images: bmwgroup.com