BMW has released a short video clip teasing what its new, all-electric Neue Klasse may sound like on the move. And most of the 43 different sound signals being used for the new ‘HypersonX’ soundscape were provided by an actual choir!
HypersonX, developed in-house by the BMW Group Sound Design Studio (yes, there really is such a thing …), is a program that produces “special driving sounds” while the vehicle is in motion, and even a ‘welcome’ note when the driver unlocks and enters the vehicle. Each has been specifically designed to create a “holistic driving and user experience” and “an emotional interaction between the driver and their vehicle” for the Neue Klasse, effectively the precursor to the new, all-electric 3 Series due in 2026.
Key Takeaways
- HypersonX is divided into two modes – Personal and Sport – on the move
- Voices of BMW Group employees sampled for ‘Welcome’ note
- Final compilation tested with a vehicle simulator
BMW Group Choir Creates “Moments Of Joy” For EV Soundtrack
The motion side of HypersonX is divided into two modes: ‘Personal,’ said to represent the “everyday life soundtrack” of the Neue Klasse occupant, and ‘Sport,’ which, as you’d expect, focuses more on “precision.” Examples of the Personal soundscape can be heard at 3m 7s in the video below, while Sport mode can be heard at 3m 23s.
“Whenever a person will enter a BMW, there will be a ‘salute’ and welcome with sound that is made up of the joy of other humans”
Renzo Vitale, BMW Group’s creative director (sound)
Rather than simply pumping the sounds of a screaming M5 V8 through the cabin via the new (knob-less) BMW Panoramic iDrive however, which wouldn’t really ‘sell’ that 800-volt electric architecture (which will also be at the heart of the new electric M3), BMW’s sound design team has instead developed a bespoke soundtrack using 43 different sound signals. The most notable of these is a “choir” made up of BMW employees speaking about general “moments of joy” in their native language. These soundbites are then sampled, and the choir’s collective voices are layered over a ‘tone’ that becomes the ‘Welcome Sound’ when the driver enters the car. This is said to inflect the soundscape with “a particularly empathetic flavor” and a dash of “human warmth.” This can be heard in the video at 1m 50s.
What Does A Stone Forming ‘Sound’ Like?
Alongside the choir, sound samples have also been taken from more contemporary elements like art and nature (think of every ‘babbling brook’ or ‘rainforest’ ASMR video you’ve ever seen, and you get the idea) down to more unorthodox methods. The sound design team, for example, considered how architecture, reflective light, and even how stones are formed could be represented by sound. Once that was done, into the ‘welcome note’ they went too. In a neat touch, these samples are then tested in a simulator to gauge whether the soundscape offers the right haptic experience while the (virtual) vehicle is on the move.
“The idea has been to go to the core of our sonic brand, and understanding what are the elements that really define BMW.”
Renzo Vitale, BMW Group’s creative director (sound)
BMW claims that the depth involved with this process would not have been possible without the new, evolved control units – BMW Operating System X – at the heart of the Neue Klasse.
TopSpeed’s Take
“Moments of joy.” “Precision, warmth and lightness.” “Acoustic ambience.” It all sounds slightly awkward, and, well, naff. And yet, fair play to BMW and its sound design team, as HypersonX really does create a soundtrack we’ve rarely heard from an EV before: the ‘chittering’ welcome note is a particularly sonorous example. Whether or not the Neue Klasse soundscape finally creates “a direct emotional connection” between car and driver, something electric vehicles have struggled with badly in the past, remains to be seen, though. And quite honestly, we doubt it, given that our primitive minds have connected mechanical motion with the viscera of internal combustion for more than a century now, something a modern and admittedly high-tech (though emotionally nascent) electrical whir will struggle to overturn.
Still, it is genuinely heartening to see that so much time, effort and creative thought is being put into something as arbitrary as the ‘welcome’ notes of an electric vehicle. Fingers crossed BMW’s sound design team’s “human warmth” will one day break through that psychological programming.
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