Celebrated Hollywood soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer has created a soundscape to replace engine noise on BMW’s latest range of electric M cars.
Zimmer has previously worked on a series of sounds for BMW’s range of electrically powered vehicles, which create excitement when the Start/Stop button is pressed. The latest project sees the award-winning composer create ‘drive sounds’ for the BMW iX, i4 and a differentiated sound for the M-spec i4.
“Every BMW has its own character, which is reflected in the sound it makes,” Zimmer says.
“So for the electrically driven BMW M models we have developed a driving sound which accentuates their emotional driving experience particularly vividly and ensures their performance can be felt with even greater intensity.”
BMW’s press release on the Zimmer partnership suggests that drivers will lose a degree of emotionality when driving electric, but with the IconicSounds Electric they are keen to put smiles on the face of customers.
Sound designer Renzo Vitale, who worked on the sounds with Zimmer said: “When you press the pedal of an M car, you suddenly get goosebumps all over your body.
“We translated this feeling into a drive sound that expresses a fusion of superior power and flowing energy.”
The new drive sounds developed as part of the collaboration with Hans Zimmer are expected to feature in the BMW i4 and BMW iX over the course of 2022.
“There’s a new world that we created. We unleashed some beast, but at the same time it’s got precision,” Zimmer continued.
“How can we give something that is more of an experience than they ever had with their petrol engines, and make it even more exciting and even more joyful to drive?
“So I keep thinking that we can go further with these sounds because the sportiness, the whole philosophy behind the M cars and, I think, behind the drivers, is that they are a little bit more ready for a bit of an experiment – for a little bit of something new, something unusual.”