Forget what you know about electric driving. No, really. Because with the Neue Klasse, everything is about to change.
With the launch of the Neue Klasse, you’re about to experience the most agile and responsive BMW ever built; a leap forward in what driving pleasure truly feels like. While the Neue Klasse will bring a wealth of new innovations and benefits to drivers everywhere, one of its biggest promises is that it will forever change the very way you connect with the road.
At the core of this transformation is a new piece of technology, the Heart of Joy. A unique, digital innovation, hidden under the surface, yet felt in every movement and every moment, its promise is to bring a new level of electric joy to the very heart of the driving experience.
To give you an idea, imagine the following: You get behind the wheel and hit the road. The car responds instantly. Not after a beat, but in the same moment. That’s the Heart of Joy. Precise, direct, and alive.
But what, exactly, is then the Heart of Joy? And how does it work?
Shortly put, the Heart of Joy is a new central computer unit that combines drivetrain and driving dynamics functions into one. Usually, functions like acceleration and braking are controlled by separate algorithms, but the Heart of Joy combines it all into one, allowing it to process information ten times faster than any previous system.
Functions like control of the drivetrain, brakes, charging, recuperation and steering can in this way be centrally processed and algorithmically controlled. Everything works hand-in-and – which in turn means minimal latencies, shorter reaction times and improved energy efficiency. Powering the whole thing is the dedicated BMW Dynamic Performance Control software, developed entirely in-house.
Behind the Heart of Joy lies thousands of hours of research and development, and not least on-the-road testing. All done by BMW engineers, developers, researchers and test drivers, who have in one way or another found themselves entrenched in a task that has the potential to change the very way you – the driver – will experience electric driving.
“I did about 2.000 kilometers of testing, and the best way I can describe it is to say that it is a driving experience that feels much more direct and natural,” says Christian Hentschel, Head of Driving Behaviour BEV Gen6 at BMW, and continues.
“Usually, you have the feeling the car first shortly considers what to do, then it reacts. With the Heart of Joy, it happens instantly. You are in touch with the vehicle in a new way.”
“Imagine getting to work with a newly sharpened knife after having worked with a dull one,” adds Torsten Müller, Chief Engineer BMW Dynamic Perfomance Control.
“This is what it feels like. Everything you do feels natural and easy. Everything is crisp, precise, direct. It just feels… right.”
This notion of “feeling just right” is key to understanding the real impact of the Heart of Joy.
More than just a question of improving performance, the unit enhances the feeling of comfort and even safety, even in everyday driving situations.
“The Heart of Joy changes how people experience even regular driving situations. The pleasure of driving itself will change,” says Hentschel.
To bring the Heart of Joy from vision to reality, BMW created a rolling laboratory: the BMW Vision Driving Experience test vehicle, or simply “the VDX”. The VDX premiered to the public at the Shanghai Motor Show for the public to see just how capable the new electric driving dynamics really are.
However, the VDX is more than simply a show vehicle. It is a sign of what’s to come.
As a test platform for the latest technologies, including the Heart of Joy, the VDX was created to push the boundaries of digital driving dynamics. The learnings from the tests will help engineers and developers create tomorrow’s driving experience once the Neue Klasse goes into production (➜ Read also: The Road to Neue Klasse).
“We asked ourselves: what can we really make better, what is missing, what will be helpful?” explains Hentschel.
“The functions we have in cars today become even-more complex, and more dependent on each other. This impacts everything, from how we build steering devices to hydraulics and how we think about braking. We asked ourselves what is really possible if we think everything anew?”
“The technologies drivers will experience in the Neue Klasse have been tested more intensely than what is usually the case.” adds Müller and continues.
“But all this serves a purpose. We do it because we really want to understand what an electric vehicle is truly capable of.”
More than “simply” a new piece of digital technology, then, the Heart of Joy has an enormous symbolic value, too. Its promise is not simply to enhance performance or add thrill, but to entirely reimagine driving pleasure for electric drivers. And by that it becomes about something as all-encompassing as real emotions:
“As the Heart of Joy was introduced for the first time, I must admit I was very proud. I almost had a tear in my eye," reveals Müller.
“This to me is what we stand for: Driving pleasure is the core of our brand. It has always been like that, and we always in some way return to this. The Heart of Joy is this: Driving pleasure, pure and emotional as we know it and love it. Only this time, we built it for from the ground up for people to experience what driving pleasure should feel like in the electric age.”
Author: David Barnwell; Art Direction: Verena Aichinger, Lucas Lemuth, Madita O’Sullivan; Photos & Video: BMW
