BMW has given the Neue Klasse a special ‘HypersonX’ noise: listen to it (a bit) here

“Sound plays a crucial role in shaping our connection to vehicles,” explains BMW in this new video teasing the sound of its neue Neue Klasse EVs. So crucial, we’re only treated to about 12 seconds of actual driving sounds.

And while those seconds do not mimic a 3.2-litre straight-six screaming its lungs out, they do offer a suitably soothing and futuristic soundtrack.

Carmakers across the board are of course grappling with the noises their EVs make, attempting to overturn more than a century’s worth of psychological programming that in our primitive brains equates exploding pistons with movement.

So this is BMW’s effort; a new ‘soundscape’ for its next-gen EVs dubbed ‘HypersonX’. It apparently takes in 43 sound signals and special driving sounds for ‘Personal’ and ‘Sport’ driving modes. “The multi-dimensional spectrum adapts the sounds precisely to the driving situation at hand,” says BMW. You'll notice it's very different to the noise the 1,000bhp electric M3 prototype makes, with that car very much pumping out a sort of fake engine note with lots of 'turbo' whoosh. 

Renzo Vitale, BMW’s creative director of sound, noted the carmaker’s focus on “precision, warmth and lightness” to “create a direct emotional connection between the driver and their vehicle” for these non-M Neue Klasse cars. Because of course, previously that connection would have been created by those aforementioned exploding pistons and your right foot.

For ‘HypersonX’, BMW has turned to the worlds of nature, art and science, deploying fewer basic notes than before, but offering a wider ‘acoustic spectrum’. There’s a new audio control unit at the heart of BMW’s Neue Klasse cars, able to create “three dimensional layers of sound” when accelerating. This, says BMW, offers “the feeling of speed and BMW-typical driving dynamics authentically into the cabin”.

You can get a taste of those sounds by skipping to around the three-minute mark in the video below, and then – because we’ve only got primitive, 20th century brains – petition BMW to code in a special ‘3.2-litre straight-six screaming its lungs out’ mode.