- BMW M’s chief executive is impressed with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N and wants to offer similar features for its EVs.
- Frank van Meel says sounds and gears help racers accurately gauge speed.
- The firm’s first fully-fledged EV will be based around the Neue Klasse platform.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has been widely praised by car enthusiasts and is viewed by many as the most driver-focused EV on the planet. BMW’s M division has noticed, and its boss has revealed that the company is working on emulated gear shifts and fake sounds for its EVs.
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When building the first EV with the N badge, Hyundai could have followed the path set by Kia with the EV6 GT and given the regular Ioniq 5 more power, some chassis tweaks, big brakes, and called it a day. It didn’t. Instead, the carmaker went the extra mile. It developed various systems and features that add to the overall driving experience, including the ability to shift through the gears of a synthetic eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.
Read: BMW Says First M Electric Sedan Will “Beat Everything You’ve Ever Seen”
Top Gear recently spoke with BMW M chief executive Frank van Meel and asked him about the Ioniq 5 N. He praised Hyundai’s high-powered creation, and it appears that buyers of future EVs from BMW will have similar toys to play with.
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“I like they way they think – that’s the way we think as well,” he said. You need to have feedback [in the car]. If you’re on the track you don’t have time to look at your speedometer or tachometer. If you’re racing, if you take the time to look at your display, two cars will overtake you. So what you want to have is a way to know what gear you’re in, a way to ‘feel’ the revs.”
“In a pure EV with one gear, no sound and no emotion, you don’t know if you’re doing 125, 150 or whatever,” van Meel added. “You need a solution for that. You have to find a connection to the brain of the driver, without forcing you to look at your speedometer. So I think what [Hyundai] did with gear emulation and sound – which is actually what we’re working on already – is the way to go. We need something like that in our fast performance cars.”
BMW M’s boss said that the company has been working on simulated gearshifts for EVs “for some years already” and said it has some “very interesting approaches to this [problem].”
The first high-performance EV from the M division will be a sedan based around the firm’s Neue Klasse platform. This model is expected to launch in 2026 or 2027 and is currently being tested with a quad-motor powertrain that could pump out upwards of 1,341 hp, an extraordinary figure for a sedan. Add in some fake sounds and simulated gearshifts, and it could be a driver-focused hypercar killer.
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