Surprising brand to adopt controversial feature pioneered by Hyundai: BMW M Boss hints future electric BMW M3 will feature fake gear shifts and exhaust sounds

Electric performance cars were missing something.

That was, until Hyundai’s N department led by ex-BMW M boffin Albert Biermann’s team came along with simulated engine sounds and gear shifts. The Ioniq 5 N changed the game.

Coming full circle, it now looks like BMW’s first ever electric M car, the next-gen 750kW quad-motor M3, will adopt similar technology to enhance driver engagement. 

We've also worked with digital artist Thanos Pappas imagined what the electric M3 will look like (above), taking cues from the Neue Klasse sedan concept, teaser images and BMW M hallmarks with a retro colour palette.

Having teased the engine sound in a YouTube video, BMW M CEO Frank Van Meel revealed to CarsGuide why features like simulated gear ratios could be the perfect fit for its first electric car that will definitely not be known as the ‘iM3’

Tellingly, when asked directly about fake gear shifts in the next M3, Van Meel refused to answer… but then went on to explain exactly why an aural feedback system like simulated gears is so important to a future electric M car. 

“What we do need is the feedback to the driver actually where you are when you are in the car. On the track, there’s this loop: track, car, driver, and you have to be one. 

“You have to feel where you are, the car, what the speed is, what the grip level is — of course grip level you can feel through the steering through the movement of the car — but actually speed feedback today, you get from sound, you get from vibration, you get from gears,” explains Van Meel. 

BMW already has aural feedback in its electric cars with Iconic Sounds electric, famously done by composer Hans Zimmer. Stellantis products such as the Abarth 500e and Dodge Charger have a more pronounced noise that plays externally, too. 

The problem is, currently both BMW, Stellantis and other brands with noisy EVs simply have a note that rises through speed, without dedicated shift points. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N has the option to simulate real ratios with engineered-in rev cut and shock when changing down gears, just like a real dual-clutch automatic. 

“If you're on the track you’re not able to look down to your speedometer because once you do that on the track two cars will pass you; one on the left one on the right.

“So, you try to stay focused and look at the track where you want to go to and of course from the corner of the eye you can see shifting lights and you know which gear you’re in — it’s like riding a motorbike, you know which gear you’re in, you’re hearing the revs and from the corner of the eye you can see shifting lights, so you always know how fast you are [going],” says Van Meel. 

What’s BMW M’s answer, then? 

“You need a real clear sound and probably that should not be too far away from what you’re used to because otherwise you might be distracted – you don’t want to do that,” explains Van Meel.

“Even as a piano player if you drive from 0-300km/h in one gear and the tone is going up through 7 octaves actually you don’t know how quick you are. So there must be a solution… In the future, we will show which way we’ve found to be the best.”

Right at the end of the third instalment of M’s EV prototype development series the prototype — that reminds us a little bit of a straight-six powered ‘E46’ M3 — there’s a dead giveaway. 

The last shot shows Carsten Wolf, BMW M’s Integration Vehicle Characteristics High Performance leader, accelerating through the rev range in the prototype and just in frame his middle finger twitches, ready to pull a shift paddle as the ‘engine note’ crescendos. 

Van Meel goes on to tell us that he will “go to Sweden next week to drive them both on snow and ice. It’s difficult to describe but I’m a vehicle dynamics engineer and it is just insane what [M3] can do.” 

We know the new M3 will use a quartet of electric motors to produce stunning outputs in excess of 750kW and the ability to vector torque to each wheel for mind-bending cornering abilities.

It’s an open secret that this new electric M3 will be sold alongside a combustion-engined version, using a version of the existing (and fantastic) ‘S58’ twin-turbo inline six engine. Apparently, both will launch at very similar times and wear the same nameplate.

“There will not be an iM3. M3 is the car and it has been for 40 years, more or less. We never spoke about what is inside, because M3 is a promise and it’s independent from what drivetrain is in the car. M3 is M3, there’s also no need to add an ‘i’. 

Sadly, we’re also sure the new BMW M3 is still a long way off. Insiders point to a release date in 2028, so it’ll be a long wait.