Electric cars were supposed to be less noisy than internal combustion engines. In fact, they are so quiet that manufacturers have to add “pedestrian warning sounds” to make sure pedestrians can hear cars and make way for them. However I can hear them when sitting in my apartment with the windows open. Or when I’m just walking around in the city. In the end, I find some of them more noisy and annoying than internal combustion engines when they are moving at low speed.
So far the most noisy electric cars to me are Hyundai and Chevrolet.
I know they are just complying with safety regulations in their own way. After all, people can’t drive a two ton lethal silent vehicle at speed in compact and dense urban environments without at least making some sort of alien spaceship noise, for safety. But it’s making some electric cars annoying to me. So in the not so distant future, living in a city will sound like this?!
So, aside from those two, what are the other brands that are making their electric cars more noisy and annoying than cars with internal combustion engines?
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Toyotas, specifically their hybrids, are the noisiest cars around. And only at parking lot speeds. Yes, this is intentional, but it’s REALLY annoying.
Because idiots walk into live traffic without looking.
If an electric car can be programmed to sound like the Jetsons flying cars then I will buy one tomorrow.
just put a bespoke cassette in the am/fm/cassette deck and turn up the speakers
The entire “electric cars wills be quiet” is just a lie and/or misconception of what traffic noise is. If you live relatively near any street with a speed limit above 30 km/h, as most people do, you’ll notice very little noise difference with 100 % electric cars and trucks imo. The noise comes from the road surface, the tires, the friction in general. An electric car at 50 km/h to me is louder than a new train at 150 km/h. Asphalt or concrete + rubber = noise at speed.
Nice theory brah, but EVs have different tires designed for lower rolling resistance and less noise.
Source?
It’s such baloney. ICE vehicles are allowed to make as little noise as they want, but electric vehicles have to purposefully make noise cause they’re too quiet? Rolls Royce don’t make noise, why don’t they need a noise maker.
People were getting struck by EVs. They only generate sounds at low speed. I have had people walk in front of my hybrid while in EV mode in parking lots, many people because they are all brain surgeons getting critical patient data they need to see walking to their cars.
Perhaps a more important question is why do EVs not have the option to make their pedestrian awareness sound like a jetson’s car?
The lame answer is that there are specific legal requirements around what sound they have to make.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-V/part-571/subpart-B/section-571.141
Obviously, thats in the US, but i bet other regulatory agencies have similar.
I only skimmed it, but it sounds like a jetsons sound is allowed.
They generate sounds that can be detected as directional by humans. It’s not a random noise.
Can we just do with standardized soft beeps on reverse or something?
Yes, better no card at all but that won’t happen and we sometimes may actually need a car
For those moments, I want things standardized and tooled for humans
Any ones of them going fast.
This is the truth. It isn’t the fake scifi noises you should be annoyed with, any car going faster than 30-50km/h will sound exactly the same due to road noise from the tires.
“which electric cars are the noisiest”
“All cars are noisy if they’re going fast enough”
Lol ok, but not what we’re talking about.
It’s also incorrect, do they think that the engine just makes zero noise at higher rpms? And that electric vehicles using low resistance tires also has zero effect?
Above about 30 km/h you don’t hear the engines from traffic, but just the general “woosh” traffic noise. EV or ICE doesn’t matter much in that regard. Exception being obnoxiously loudly ‘tuned’ engines, but those should just consequently be confiscated imo, especially if driven at night, while that is on purpose disturbing thousands of people’s rest, it’s sociopath behaviour
I’m confused, are we on the same side or not? Cars are cars, just because they have a battery doesn’t make them any better for us. A Toyota RAV4 makes the same amount of road noise as a Hyundai Ioniq 9
That’s wrong. Several people have blurted this and it’s wrong.
EVs have different tires, they have less rolling resistance and a foam liner to absorb sound, because otherwise all the driver would hear is tire noise.
https://www.michelinman.com/auto/auto-tips-and-advice/electric-mobility-guide/quiet-and-comfortable
EVs also have lower air drag, which makes less noise.
By far, the most noise on roadways is from chunky tread brodozers and 18 wheelers.
