Porsche Wants Car Paint That Can Copy Any Color You See

Key Points

• BMW, Toyota, and Porsche are developing color-changing paint technology for cars.
• Porsche's patent uses cameras to capture and replicate colors directly onto vehicles.
• The technology could enhance sales by letting customers instantly visualize custom colors on the showroom floor.

In 2022, BMW showed off the astonishing color-changing concept of e-Ink on an iX EV, a car that could be black, white, or grey, and the following year, it presented the i Vision Dee concept car, which could change between numerous vivid colors. It may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but BMW isn’t the only automaker looking into the idea in the hopes that it will someday be commercially viable. Last year, Toyota applied for a patent for paint that could change colors using heat and light, and now, Porsche is doing something similar in a patent filed with the World Intellectual Property Office, reports CarBuzz, and it seems like the perfect match for a company that offers services like Paint to Sample.

Porsche Proposes Using a Camera to Copy Any Color

Porsche’s patent acknowledges the innovation of e-Ink used by its compatriots in Munich, as well as paramagnetic lacquers (coatings that can change color with the application of electrical voltage). Instead of trying to improve on or reinvent these technologies, Porsche’s patent focuses on a way of enhancing their applications using a camera to capture an image. The driver of the vehicle could potentially use their smartphone to take a picture of something they like and then pick the area of the image with the color they want to recreate. The system in the car would then determine the color value of that area of the photograph and transmit it to the car’s paint controller. Alternatively, the patent proposes using a camera integrated into the car to capture a color, meaning a user’s car could potentially copy the color of something the driver sees while on the move. An interior camera could do something similar, meaning one could match their car to their clothes or even a shade of lipstick. Porsche has done the latter before, but with the new technology, a customer could replicate the process without the time-consuming affair of visiting the Sonderwunsch department.

More Than One Way of Refinishing a Car

The patent indicates that the technology could be realized with a film applied to a car or through the paint, though the latter may be more costly. Either way, the patent recognizes that this could be a fantastic sales tool, indicating that it could be used in a dealership showroom. While swatches are helpful, their countless colors are difficult to accurately imagine being applied to a full-size car. With this tech, a salesperson could show potential customers endless shades of paint on a single model at the touch of a button, allowing them to accurately envision their dream build with or without the assistance of the Sonderwunsch department. If such a concept becomes a reality, there will doubtless be several customers who request the option of changing paint colors at a whim on their own cars, and they’d surely be willing to pay handsomely for it, though we suspect this may face some legal hurdles and cause some consternation with insurers. Regardless, the fact that more and more automakers are looking into the idea suggests that it may come to fruition in some form sooner rather than later.