Watch: BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA Is Here With Electronically Animated Panels

In a surprise revelation for buyers, BMW has unveiled its highly-awaited i5 Flow NOSTOKANA, and it has a funky look.

The car is clearly a tech-filled and new-age remake of its 12th art car, coming with electronically animated panels with a South African tribal pattern.

Calling it a moment when ‘Art meets Innovation’, the automobile company said in its statement, “The BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA honours the history of the BMW brand and continues the story of our global cultural engagement in a unique way. It combines art and design through progressive technology. Here, technology itself becomes art."

It further stated that the one-of-a-kind vehicle combines colour-change technology developed by BMW with the artistic language of South African artist Esther Mahlangu. The designer piece, which has sections of the attached film, can be electronically animated and embodies the latest development in colour-change technology for vehicle surfaces in cooperation with E Ink.

The South African artist who first worked with BMW back in 1991 became the first African and female artist to sign an art car. Previously, she had painted on an all-white 525i. “Her art inspired me years ago, back when the concept of colour change on a car was just an idea in my head," said Stella Clarke, Research Engineer Open Innovations at the BMW Group, as reported by Team BHP.

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While the i5 electric sedan now comes with animated panels, it is said to be fitted with 1,349 sections of film, each one of which is controlled individually. With the use of E-Ink and electric voltage, the colour particles can be changed through electrophoresis. Besides that, BMW has also integrated a custom soundtrack featuring Mahlangu’s voice.

As BMW’s colour-changing technology is developing rapidly, the latest phase of development has enabled even more colours and patterns. At the same time, the sections of the film are more robust, which has the potential to make future series production easier.

The latest designer car was unveiled at Frieze Los Angeles, standing as a testimony to BMW’s long-standing cooperation with the renowned art fair. It will also remain on display in South Africa for the first time in over 30 years, as part of the exhibition hosted by the Iziko Museums of South Africa and the BMW Group in Cape Town.