German carmaker BMW has unveiled the world’s first “colour-changing” car at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The concept car, BMW iX Flow, uses electronic ink technology normally found in e-readers to transform the car’s exterior into a variety of patterns in gray and white.

“This is really energy efficient colour change using the technology E Ink,” BMW research engineer Stella Clarke said. “So we took this material – it’s kind of a thick paper – and our challenge was to get this on a 3D object like our cars.”

The material brings different pigments to the surface, causing the car to take on a different shade or design, such as racing stripes, when stimulated by electrical signals controlled by a phone app.

In the future, the changes would also be controlled by a button on the car’s dashboard or perhaps even by hand gestures.

Maintaining the colour the driver selects consumes no energy, according to BMW.

According to businessinsider