Why BMW's 'Heart of Joy' Is the Next Big Step in Vehicle Dynamics
For a while now, we’ve been moving toward cars with various dynamic systems that each talk to each other. Whereas early driving aids worked in parallel (and sometimes even against one another), now you have powertrain, ABS, and perhaps suspension and differential, all collaborating toward the same goal. That being excellent driving dynamics.
BMW is taking this to the next step with the Heart of Joy, its new “superbrain,” which brings all of the vehicle’s dynamic systems under one singular controller.
The 2026 iX3 is BMW’s first “software-defined vehicle” (SDV). While the term may sound like meaningless buzz—and initially, I thought it was—it isn’t. As Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe so eloquently explained to my colleagues at InsideEVs, a typical car is filled with all sorts of electronic controllers, each with domain over a single vehicle system. You can have modules for everything from ABS to power seats.
It’s a reflection of the piecemeal way cars gained electronic systems, but not how you’d design a vehicle starting from scratch. What the likes of Rivian have pioneered is the SDV, or zonally architected vehicle, which uses fewer, more powerful computers, each controlling multiple systems. These computers can be divided up into “zones,” handling, say, everything at a particular area of the vehicle—which is why these systems are often called “zonal architectures”—or divided up to control related vehicle functions.
That’s how BMW is doing things with its Neue Klasse EV platform, which debuts with the iX3. The car has four “superbrains.” One handles basic electric functions, one handles the infotainment system, one handles all automated driving systems, and the Heart of Joy, which manages all the car’s dynamic systems. This includes powertrain, brakes, and steering in the iX3. But in future Neue Klasse cars, like the upcoming electric M3, it’s easy to imagine more systems under the Heart of Joy’s control.
Obviously, having various systems talking to each other isn’t new. The difference here is that in other cars like this, the systems might speak different native languages. Different systems often come from different suppliers, which provide the software to the automaker. It’s up to the automaker’s engineers to coordinate between the subsystems, and that limits what exactly you can do with your hardware.
With the Heart of Joy, all the systems speak the same language, with software BMW writes in-house.
“With 20 times faster computing power, and that in combination with an electric powertrain system, you can realize from stabilization, to driving, to chassis control, and to powertrain controls, a system which has a dynamic [capability] never seen before,” explains Dr. Joachim Post, BMW’s Chief Technical Officer.
Electric motors offer quick and minute control of torque output. With one at each axle, as in the iX3 50, that allows for very precise control of handling balance, but BMW has already taken this further with its VDX concept, which uses one for each wheel. “With this computing power speed, it allows driving on the physical limits.”
On the flipside, the Heart of Joy has helped BMW realize smoother, more efficient braking performance. As in most EVs, the iX3 uses a combination of regenerative and friction braking, but the handoff between the two systems has always proved a challenge for automakers. Thanks to the Heart of Joy, BMW can handle most braking events in the iX3 with regen.
This helps with efficiency—the iX3 touts an estimated 400-mile EPA range—but also provides incredibly smooth stops. The test the automaker likes to cite is putting someone in the passenger seat and asking them to close their eyes, and then to call out when the car has come to a complete stop. Typically, the driver has already come to a stop long before the passenger even realizes it. Our colleagues at InsideEVs remarked on the iX3’s incredibly smooth braking performance and its smoothness in general in a prototype test this past summer.
But, I think the iX3 only scratches the surface of what the Heart of Joy—or a system like it—is capable of. Add in an electronic locking differential, semi- or fully active suspension, and more drive motors, and the dynamic possibilities become even greater. A system like this could even work with an internal-combustion engine.
BMW has said that the technologies of the Neue Klasse are for all its future models—not just EVs.
“What you can do with an electric motor with recuperation, you cannot do it in the same way without a combustion engine with a 48-volt or at least a hybrid system, because the braking power by the electric system is not on that level,” Post says. “So some things you can realize, but some things not. But in any case, computing power, stabilization, dynamics, there are a lot of functions you can carry over to [an internal-combustion] car.”
So, it’s not just the coming electric M3 that will benefit—the gas version will as well.
BMW isn’t the only automaker doing this sort of thing. Porsche is headed in this direction, and startup automakers like Rivian and Lucid have gone a long way in reducing the number of electronic controllers a car has, only using one or two to manage all the dynamic systems.
It’s an important step on the path many automakers have been headed for some years. The idea is to have as many levers as possible to pull to achieve a certain dynamic outcome. In BMW’s case, the Heart of Joy will help the car more intelligently and quickly choose which levers to pull.
The ideal end result is nothing specific that the customer should notice. It’s a complicated system and a complicated concept to understand, but the end goal is simple—a car that’s great to drive.
