Lion King composer to develop a new sound for BMW electric cars

Academy Award winning composer Hans Zimmer has been hired by German luxury vehicle maker BMW to help expand the range of sounds for electric BMW vehicles.

According to a somewhat hyperbolic press release BMW put out on Tuesday, Zimmer will develop “emotionally rich aural experience” that is a “fascinating and unmistakable sonic experience.”

The new “distinctive” sound was created between Zimmer and Renzo Vitale, BMW Group’s Creative Director Sound, and will soon be available in electric BMW M models.

“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,” Zimmer is quoted as saying.

This is not the first time Hans Zimmer – whose Academy Award Best Original Score win for The Lion King and numerous Best Original Score nominations for films such as Gladiator, Inception, and Interstellar have made him something of a cult favourite – has worked with BMW. He developed the original sound for the stop-start button.

Zimmer’s latest involvement is focused specifically on developing drive sounds for the BMW iX and BMW i4, including a differentiated sound for the M-specification version of the BMW i4.

There will be those who purchase an electric vehicle who, not unfairly, will look askance at announcements such as these, shrugging at the wildly hyperbolic verbose language and indiscriminate and haphazard capitalisation to describe what amounts to “noise”.

Conversely, however, anyone who has ever heard a Mustang or Jaguar (or even a MINI Cooper) should be willing to acknowledge the appeal of the “right” sound coming out the back of their vehicle.

Driving sounds will be selectable at the touch of a button and can also take its cues from the driving situation at hand and the driver’s personal preferences. BMW continues, and their language requires being quoted in full:

“In the basic setting, BMW IconicSounds Electric employs a strikingly transparent timbre with spherical components to convey the basic character of an electrically driven BMW brand model. An immersive and pleasant atmosphere is created initially in the BMW i4 in COMFORT mode. But when the driver steps on the accelerator, the direct relationship between how the car is being driven and the sounds it makes is immediately revealed: the sound experience deepens as load and speed increase. In SPORT mode, in particular, the car’s aural spectrum is more dominant and powerful, the sound providing a constant commentary on the driving situation.”

Similarly, “In the version developed specifically for electrified BMW M models, the drive sound of the BMW i4 is charged with extra energy. Added to which, the differentiation between COMFORT and SPORT mode is especially strong.

Overall, the drive system note displays a less harmonious but engagingly rousing and technical sonic profile.”

The vehicle’s drive system registers changes within milliseconds and acceleration, load changes, and recuperation are all “given a suitable acoustic accompaniment.

Only when the vehicle switches into ECO PRO mode is all acoustic feedback reduced, where “the silence of the drive system underscores the driver’s decision to adopt an ultra-efficient driving style.”