BMW paints the bodywork of the new X6 with the spectacular Vantablack technology

BMW has spent this year renewing its SUV range, including the new X6 which is already on sale in our country, a vehicle that arrives in its third generation loaded with novelties, including new exterior and interior styling, along with a refreshed interior that features important technological advances.

But the news surrounding the new BMW X6 will continue to expand next September, when the Frankfurt Motor Show opens its doors, as we will see the new X6 with Vantablack paint applied to its bodywork. As you can see in the images accompanying this article, the X6 could be considered the vehicle with the deepest black paint in the world, which undoubtedly gives it a truly spectacular and sinister look.

The paint applied to the new BMW X6 is the so-called Vantablack VBx2, created by the company Surrey NanoSystems, which in 2014 presented the first generation of this range of paints, capable of absorbing up to 99.965% of light, thus almost completely eliminating reflectance and residual light. This is achieved because Vantablack paint is composed of carbon nanotubes, with a length of 14 to 50 micrometres and a diameter of 20 nanometres, which translates into roughly a billion nanotubes aligned vertically in one square centimetre, so that virtually any light that strikes them is completely absorbed instead of being reflected.

Vantablack paint can be applied to surfaces at temperatures of 430 degrees Celsius, which makes it especially suitable for delicate materials such as aluminium or optical components. In fact, Vantablack paint was initially conceived as a coating for space components. Over the years Surrey NanoSystems has received offers from other automotive companies to apply the paint to their vehicles, but all of them were rejected, until BMW arrived with its new X6 and changed their minds upon seeing the third generation of this SUV, with a design and elements they considered perfect to pair with the paint, especially the light clusters and their new kidney grilles that can be backlit.

In this way, Vantablack paint was finally applied to the new BMW X6, so that to the human eye any surface loses its defining characteristics thanks to its total hemispherical reflectance of 1%, “turning” an object from three dimensions into two dimensions.

Technical specifications of this car

CrossoverBMW X64 versions · from 103,400 €