Music fans have had it rough this year with the deaths of talented musicians like former Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and Linkin Park's lead singer Chester Bennington. We weren't expecting Bennington's legacy to be continued by Mercedes-AMG, though. According to a report by Wheels, the California-based rock band Linkin Park that Bennington used to front has been enlisted by Mercedes-AMG to help make its future electrified cars sound more ear-pleasing.
After all, to many people part of the appeal of a high performance sports car or supercar is the ear-pleasing sound it makes. And Mercedes-AMG doesn't want its EVs to be any less aurally pleasing. Mercedes-AMG CEO Tobias Moers told the publication that the company is working with several experts in various industries, including Linkin Park to ensure the sound of an AMG still appeals to its customers even after electrified vehicles join the range. "You know Linkin Park? I started to talk with these guys about what is their interpretation of electrified sound. We've had a cooperation with Linkin Park for years. We're really close," Moers told Wheels.
Exactly how the band will influence the sound of future electrified Mercedes-AMGs remains to be heard, but Linkin Park is a small part of a larger project involving other musicians and audio experts. "We started off years ago," he continued. "We established a team doing artificial sound and we worked together with games specialists, we worked together with film artists doing sound for films. We sell emotions and sound is really a crucial part of emotion so what we do is work on artificial sounds because you have to." At this point, the team hasn't finalized what an electrified AMG will sound like.
It will be interesting to see whether it will be a digitally augmented sound replicating a combustion engine or an altogether new sound celebrating an electric drivetrain. Mercedes-AMG has previously developed the all-electric SLS Electric Drive, and is currently working on several hybrid projects including the Project One hypercar and the GT Concept. Moers explained to Wheels that the four-door AMG GT Concept represents how an electrified production model could work in the future. "What you have seen in Geneva and the GT concept with rear-axle hybrid system, is more or less our understanding of how we are going to electrify powertrains in performance cars," he said.
