Electric car manufacturers have figured out how to increase not only safety, but also driving pleasure: they promise more emotions

People who try electric cars for the first time still find it hard to believe that they are so quiet that they can shoot forward without effort and without making any sound. Of course, the first times are surprising, but later it can be confusing: one of the most important elements of driving involvement, which allows you to better understand the car and its dynamics, is missing.

The good news is that modern electric cars may not be completely silent. The sounds that enhance the sense of dynamics are gradually coming to electric models as well. Only they are different.

Some, for example, Porsche or Mercedes, imitate spaceships, BMW hired famous composer Hans Zimmer to create a soundtrack for its electric cars, and Hyundai’s sporty Ioniq 5 N electric car allows you to choose not only futuristic sounds, but also internal combustion the hum of the engine with simulated exhaust chatter when the accelerator is released.

Electric cars can be quiet, but if you want, they can make noise and thus enhance driving emotions. However, there is no completely silent electric car on the market.

“Electric cars need to make a sound, especially when going backwards or forwards slowly, so that people walking around can hear. When driving slowly, they appear as if they have a holy spirit, so it can be dangerous where there are more people,” explains Gintenis Dauparas, a car reviewer and communication specialist at “Autoplius.lt”.

In fact, attention was drawn to the problem of the silence of electric vehicles even when there were only a few electric cars on the roads. Toyota Prius hybrid models of the time, using only electricity, rolled so quietly that pedestrians simply could not hear them.

When electric cars became popular, political decisions were also made. From 2021, all electric cars sold in the European Union must emit a sound of at least 56 decibels, but no more than 75 dB when driving up to 20 km/h. speed or reverse. Thus, for the safety of those around them, electric cars emit sound outwards while rolling. Inside, drivers hardly hear that sound.

When moving faster, that sound outside is no longer needed, because the noise of the tires from the road is heard, and when going even faster – the wind. Under load, electric motors also start to make a bit of a hum, but it’s nothing like the small but extremely frequent explosions of the fuel-oxygen mixture that occur in an internal combustion engine.

Although complete silence seems like a great advantage in certain situations, it also has its drawbacks. The operation of the internal combustion engine hides extraneous sounds. And in an electric car, the human ear catches the noise emitted by the tires, the rustling of the wind, as well as the vibrations of the chassis or the creaking of interior parts much faster. For this reason, manufacturers try to assemble electric cars as scrupulously as possible, because in them all imperfections are more noticeable than in models powered by internal combustion engines.

The noise from tires and wind is also much more irritating to the ears. As a result, the common electric car is surprisingly quiet, not only because of the motor, which does not emit any significant noise, but also because of better sound insulation. Manufacturers try to isolate the cabin from the surrounding noise in various ways: representatives of the “premium” class install more sound insulation in cars – after all, they have to justify the higher price. Middle-class manufacturers are often limited to double or laminated glass.

Interesting innovations were made by Hyundai: in addition to better sound insulation, they started installing an active noise cancellation system in electric cars, the same as can be found in many headphones. It captures the surrounding noise through microphones, analyzes its sound waves, then releases sound waves opposite to the noise through the speakers, thereby suppressing it.

Silence can make a journey much more relaxing, but in some cases it takes away some of the emotion and even the information the car is conveying.

“I don’t really need sounds in electric cars, but when I talk about cars, I can’t think only of myself. The sounds are fun to hear, and the sound of the spaceship while driving may appeal to children. Depending on the driver, the sounds can provide certain emotions. One will get in the way, and the other will like it. The advantage of electric cars is that you have a choice: you can drive quietly, but the manufacturer can program any sounds you want,” explained G. Dauparas.

Therefore, some manufacturers hire composers, others have established separate departments that create sounds. Modern electric cars, especially the more sporty ones, focused on dynamic driving, have the function of emitting sound while driving.

Most of them are futuristic spaceship-imitating noises, but others go further: the already mentioned Hyundai was the first to imitate the sound of an internal combustion engine. But who needs it?

The roar of the engine not only enhances emotions, but also provides information to the driver about the dynamics. The higher the sound level, the higher the tone, the faster you drive, and vice versa: as you slow down, the rumble gets weaker and muffled.

Sound affects the overall palette of driving sensations. Sit at the driving simulator and put your headphones to the side. There will be a decrease in informational stimuli that allow you to understand the dynamics of the car.

Another problem with electric cars is a single drive: their motor’s sound tone is solid, unchanging, so manufacturers usually don’t try to replicate the tone of an internal combustion engine. They create futuristic tracks that convey the dynamics and power used by the engine mostly through sound level and changing pitch.

The company Hyundai started to take risks: it applied the N Active Sound + technology in the sporty Ioniq 5 N model, which allows you to select even several different sounds. Along with sounds imitating a futuristic spaceship and a jet engine, they began to imitate the hum of an internal combustion engine.

This is a challenge for sound engineers, but electric drive engineers also worked with them. These created an imitation of an 8-speed automatic gearbox. After reaching a certain speed, it bounces off the limiter. Then, depending on the gear and revolutions, the engine changes its characteristics.

The sound was also adjusted to this. The tone changes depending on the engine’s load: it simulates a burbling exhaust when the accelerator is released, and gunshots when changing gears. All this is done to make drivers as involved as possible in driving.