{"id":85351,"date":"2026-04-24T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85351"},"modified":"2026-04-24T07:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:47:14","slug":"bmw-ix3-flow-edition-animated-hood-e-ink-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=85351","title":{"rendered":"BMW iX3 Flow Edition Gets Animated Hood With E Ink Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"post-summary-wrap\">\n<h3 class=\"post-summary-title\">Article Summary<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"post-summary-list\">\n<li>On its road to production, E Ink returns for a BMW iX3 concept with an animated hood.<\/li>\n<li>Available at the touch of a button, eight animations give the hood a dynamic appearance.<\/li>\n<li>Presented at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, the iX3 Flow Edition displays outlines of important buildings from China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2023\/01\/04\/bmw-e-ink-colors\/\">i Vision Dee<\/a> arrived with 32 true colors instead of mere shades of black and white.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-512794\" title=\"BMW IX3 FLOW EDITION 5\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5-830x529.jpg\" alt=\"BMW IX3 FLOW EDITION 5\" width=\"830\" height=\"529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5-830x529.jpg 830w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5-1607x1024.jpg 1607w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5-768x489.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5-1536x979.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.bmwblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BMW-iX3-Flow-Edition-5-2048x1305.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This time around, BMW hasn\u2019t applied electrophoretic paint across the whole body, as only the hood features E Ink. It\u2019s 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 \u201cdemonstrates the technology\u2019s readiness for series production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who knows, it may not be long before you\u2019ll 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2023\/01\/23\/bmw-e-ink-technology-makes-sense-ambulances\/\">ambulances and other emergency vehicles<\/a>, making them more visible than with conventional flashing lights alone.<\/p>\n<p><iframe type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"cmplazyload\" data-cmp-vendor=\"s30\" data-cmp-purpose=\"c52\" title=\"Three Neue Klasse Premieres | BMW Group at Auto China Beijing 2026\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cmp-type=\"text\/plain\" data-cmp-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dhIcfMscUl8?start=419&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2026\/04\/22\/2026-bmw-ix3-long-wheelbase-reveals-more-luxurious-interior\/\">nicer interior<\/a> will go on sale there soon. Both the global \u201cNA5\u201d and the larger \u201cNA6\u201d shared the stage at today\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n<p>BMW intends to offer the stretched model in other markets, with future availability in India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia already confirmed. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmwblog.com\/2026\/04\/22\/2026-bmw-i3-long-wheelbase-debut\/\">long-wheelbase i3 sedan<\/a> (\u201cNA8\u201d), presented at the same show, may not remain exclusive to China either, though that remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article Summary On its road to production, E Ink returns for a BMW iX3 concept with an animated hood. Available at the touch of a button, eight animations give the hood a dynamic appearance. Presented at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, the iX3 Flow Edition displays outlines of important buildings from China. The iX Flow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}