BMW has gone to the dark side to promote the premier of its new X6 at the Frankfurt Motor Show by producing a version in what is believed to be the blackest black ever put on a car.

It is called the BMW X6 Vantablack and is a one off developed by BMW and UK firm Surrey NanoSystems, who are the inventors of Vantablack, the darkest man-made substance in the world.

True Vantablack reflects only 0.035% of the light that hits it and means coated objects lose all of their definition to the human eye making them appear to be 2D. Vanta or Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Array is a matrix made from microscopic carbon fragments. Instead of reflecting light the way normal paint finishes do, it absorbs the light and turns it to heat. For this reason it is used mainly on space travel components and hardware. 

Applied to the X6 is a slightly less expensive version of Vantablack known as VBx2. This allows just 1% of light that hits it to reflect giving the flat ultra dark effect.

BMW has no plans to introduce the colour commercially. Just as well, as you would never find your ultra black X6 in a dark car park.