BMW's colour-changing cars could be available in 3 to 5 years

Clarke also acknowledges the potential safety and legal hurdles of the technology.

Speaking in an interview, Stella Clarke, Engineer at BMW, confirmed that its 'E Ink' tech, which lets cars change paint colours, could be available to customers in "three to five years".

This, according to reports, could also help simplify manufacturing as all cars could come with E Ink, which can then be changed to any colour the customer requires. Clarke stated, "The vision would be to bring it to a broad customer base and the dream is that in a car factory, you no longer have the traditional spray-painting cabins, but rather everything gets [E Ink] and every car can do every colour."

The colour-changing paint is said to have multiple personalised benefits. This includes changing the car's colour from black to white on a hot day to keep the cabin cool, or have the car flash different colours to find it in a busy parking lot.

However, Clarke also acknowledges the potential safety and legal hurdles of the technology. She stated, "Safety is important, it’s got to be safe. In moving traffic, you don’t want all the cars flashing around and being a deterrence, so you’d have to bring in laws that say you can change your car while it’s static, but not while it’s driving. It’s going to be very country-specific."

Source: Drive