Another Automaker Introduces Colour Changing Technology Following BMW

Toyota has applied for a patent for a color-changing paint technology that could revolutionize the automotive industry. The technology allows owners or dealerships to quickly and easily change the color of a car using a special process involving heat and light.

The application, published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in March this year but originally filed in 2022, outlines how owners may want to change paint colors to keep up with trends or simply to change things up. Dealers could also change colors to make cars more appealing and easier to sell, according to Toyota.

Unlike traditional methods of repainting or applying vinyl wraps, Toyota’s color-changing paint is designed to change hues in response to heat and light. The process involves driving a car into a garage bay with tunnel-like heating elements surrounding it. As the paint surface is heated, a light-emitting “color modulator” device is passed over the paint surface to complete the transformation.

The color modulator, which could be controlled by a human operator or a robot, would essentially serve as the controller for this process. It could communicate with a remote server as well as temperature sensors embedded in the vehicle’s bodywork to determine the correct settings for a specific color. Toyota acknowledges that it is not the first automaker to experiment with color-changing paint, highlighting BMW’s demonstration of similar technology at CES 2022.

BMW demonstrated its color-changing technology with the BMW iX Flow during CES 2022. The EV featuring the E Ink technology became the first car in the world whose exterior color can change at the touch of a button. The color changes are made possible by a specially developed body wrap tailored precisely to the contours of the iX Flow, utilizing electrophoretic technology similar to that used in Kindle e-readers.