Colour-change BMW i Vision Dee is a chameleon on wheels

If you want to change your car’s colour as often as you change your socks, then the BMW i Vision Dee concept might be the solution for you.

Rewind to January last year, and BMW gave us a glimpse at something it calls ‘E Ink’ tech.

Back then the system was showcased on the BMW iX and gave the electric SUV the ability to change colour from black to white, whenever the owner felt like.

But now BMW has gone a step further.

The new i Vision Dee isn’t just a retro-futuristic mid-size saloon, the E Ink system on this sleek EV has a whopping 32 different colour combos.

And because the colours are all housed in 240 different E Ink ‘segments’, which you can control individually, BMW says there’s an ‘almost infinite variety of patterns to be generated and varied within seconds’.

How does it all work?

Well, E Ink is a special body wrap that responds to electrical current, allowing different coloured ‘microcapsules’ to move to the top of gel skin when required.

Clever stuff indeed.

The other eye-catching thing about the i Vision Dee - besides the way it looks, which is somehow both retro and space-age - is a new Head-Up display system that can span the entire width of the windscreen.

Remarkably, BMW says the innovation will be available on its models from 2025 onwards, in a range of cars it’s calling the ‘Neue Klasse’.

A BMW spokesperson says: 

“In BMW i Vision Dee, projection across the entire width of the windscreen allows information to be displayed on the largest possible surface – which only becomes recognisable as a display once it is activated.
“In this way, the BMW Group demonstrates the huge potential of projection technology and BMW i Vision Dee visualises how an advanced Head-Up-Display could also be utilised in the future for the display and operating concept.”

You can adjust how much information you want to be displayed on the windscreen using a ‘Mixed Reality Slider’ located on the dashboard.

Meanwhile the German manufacturer is also hoping that the i Vision Dee can ‘create an even stronger bond between people and their cars’.

As such, the Dee has a ‘phygital’ - fusion of physical and digital - ‘face’ that can produce different expressions.

They’ve clearly watched the Disney Cars movies…

A spokesperson adds: 

“This means BMW i Vision Dee can talk to people and, at the same time, express moods such as joy, astonishment or approval visually.
“BMW i Vision Dee can also project an image of the driver’s avatar onto the side window to further personalise the welcome scenario.”

The BMW i Vision Dee is being showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 in Las Vegas, USA.

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