The big car manufacturers, within the current development dynamics of the sector, now have a lot to do to build new driving pleasures from scratch. With the giant strides taken on a strictly technical level, it’s clear that one ingredient is missing from this car of the future: emotion.
Electrification is underway, in the process of massification, despite doubts and hesitations in the face of the technical and practical challenge it presents. Despite everything, the big manufacturers have redoubled their efforts in the last fifteen years to design reliable electric cars that can be used on a daily basis. But what about the driving experience and pleasure? Certainly, the massive arrival of cars like the Renault Zoé has changed the situation. Instant pleasure for the couple, characteristic sound signature now incorporated into the urban landscape, refined aesthetics inside and out… The first mass-produced electric Renault changed the situation.
Tesla brought the extra touch, with a significant technological background. Impressive power level, range capabilities, geeks of all stripes, upgrade, marketing and community driving experience, the American has reigned supreme for over a decade of innovation at this level.
The challenge of the driving experience
Now is the time for the replica, and specifically in the high-end area. And the challenge is daunting for cars that, in fact, tend to become very standardized. Given the available engines and dedicated technologies, especially if you look at the very buoyant segment of midsize SUVs, we end up with machines that are somewhat similar and hard to really distinguish in terms of driving experience.
Apart from Mazda with their MX-30 with a very specific identity and some real work on the interior equipment (and its amazing flying saucer noise), Mercedes that is working on the interior ambient lighting (with more or less success) and Audi, Striving to recreate an assertive sporty atmosphere from the ground up, we believe that premium manufacturers now need to “sell something more” to motorists on their electric cars.
And that’s where BMW comes in, with a very special approach. Take the iX1, which we recently tested. Top-level features, relative sobriety in terms of consumption, recharging time, practicality, dynamism, everything is there. But BMW’s secret weapon lies elsewhere.
Already a very unusual interior and exterior sound signature, which almost no longer evokes the automobile but rather a kind of orchestral movement, imagined and designed by Hans Zimmer, leading composer of successful film music (The Lion King EITHER the red line, Among others). Evolving according to the accelerations, the braking, according to the intensity of the movement, this sound loop in itself plunges you into an atmosphere that is both high-tech and musically successful. And it varies depending on the driving mode chosen, from the softest to the sportiest, including a top-notch Harman-Kardon sound system.
A whole range of environments to choose from
And this sound button is just one of the parameters of the various available mood modes, which can be chosen and set at will, via the central touch screen or even a special physical wheel near the gear stick.
Efficient, Sporty, Relaxed, Expressive. Each mode will immerse you in a very specific lighting atmosphere, activate certain options automatically (such as massaging the seats), the sound signature will subtly change from a simple rolling noise to something more elaborate, a kind of moving music experience, more or less intense inside the passenger compartment, with different options, all adjustable.
artistic ambitions
Finally, a special mode allows you to drive your car inside a work of art. In fact, Chinese visual artist Cao Fei was chosen by BMW to create a digital work, “Quantum Garden”, which becomes the centerpiece of a special mood mode called “Digital Art”.
Also endowed with a specific sound signature, it immerses you, through the dashboard screens, the central screen and the interior lights, in a multiple artistic experience, to say the least, unique in its kind. And all these different universes are integrated into a sober interior, but of excellent quality in every detail, with even the return of some brushed metal elements.
A cocktail that mixes, therefore, art, work on sound, light and automotive technology with great subtlety, which gives a totally unexpected relief to a BMW iX1 that, without being a boring machine, is still basically a large premium electric SUV. as we see. many dating at the moment.
We like it or we don’t, it’s a matter of taste, but we can’t deny that BMW has a real desire to enrich the driving experience with more than just automotive technology, to sell the customer a concept that goes beyond simple mobility solution. And in this, we can only salute the remarkable work and ideas of the Bavarian manufacturer.
Source: BFM TV
