In 2022, BMW revealed an SUV with color-changing “paint” as a concept, and it created a lot of buzz. The German automaker took its knowledge of electronic ink and ramped it up a notch last month with the i5 Flow Nostokana, an art car wrapped in multicolored, electronically controlled panels. Distinguished South African artist Esther Mahlangu inspired the i5 Flow Nostokana with her Ndbele designs, typically found in South African provinces Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
As reported by Australian Financial Review magazine, Clarke pulled apart her Kindle e-reader one day, and started to wonder if the same technology–e-ink–could be used in a car’s interior. She received a grant from BMW to find out. The first thing she noticed was that e-readers are rectangular, as are the e-ink panels. Adhering and shaping 1,349 sections of film to the curved surface of a car was challenging, Clarke says, requiring “origami” and laser cutting for a form fit.