BMW iX3 Flow Edition Gets Animated Hood With E Ink Tech

The iX Flow made a splash four years ago at the Consumer Electronics Show with its color-changing bodywork. BMW covered the electric SUV with a special body wrap featuring electrophoretic paint. Engineers adapted e-book reader technology for a vehicle wrapped in foil, containing several million color capsules.

The iX changed its appearance in response to electrical signals that stimulated negatively charged white or positively charged black pigments. A low-voltage electrical connection supplied energy to the tiny capsules in the wrap, flipping them from black to white and vice versa. A year later, the i Vision Dee arrived with 32 true colors instead of mere shades of black and white.

Now, BMW is bringing E Ink back into the spotlight at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show. The iX3 Flow represents the first application on a large body panel, as previous efforts relied on smaller segments combined to cover the entire vehicle. In the case of the 2023 i Vision Dee, the concept car featured no fewer than 240 E-Ink segments.

This time around, BMW hasn’t applied electrophoretic paint across the whole body, as only the hood features E Ink. It’s customizable at the touch of a button, with eight selectable animations. These show outlines of important buildings located in China. While it remains a concept for now, BMW says the iX3 Flow “demonstrates the technology’s readiness for series production.”

Who knows, it may not be long before you’ll be able to customize the look of the hood or another body panel. Doing so by the simple press of a button in the infotainment system would be unprecedented. While some may be tempted to dismiss it as a gimmick, BMW claims E Ink could have genuinely useful applications. Potential use cases include ambulances and other emergency vehicles, making them more visible than with conventional flashing lights alone.

It could also benefit regular vehicles. During summertime, black cars heat up more inside, and using E Ink to lighten the body could reduce the need for air conditioning to cool the cabin. Likewise, a darker body on a cloudy day could help absorb more heat and reduce the need for climate control.

Interestingly, the concept in Beijing is based on the standard-wheelbase iX3, which BMW will not sell in China. Instead, a separate long-wheelbase version with semi-enclosed door handles and a much nicer interior will go on sale there soon. Both the global “NA5” and the larger “NA6” shared the stage at today’s press conference.

BMW intends to offer the stretched model in other markets, with future availability in India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia already confirmed. The long-wheelbase i3 sedan (“NA8”), presented at the same show, may not remain exclusive to China either, though that remains to be seen.