Noisemaker

Automakers: Delay, Rewrite 'Quiet Car' Rule For 2014 Hybrid, Electric Cars

Electric car fans have long been skeptical of government plans to install noisemakers to alert pedestrians to a car's presence--and now automakers are pushing for a different rule. The NHTSA wants electric and hybrid vehicles to emit a noise at speeds of up to 18.6 mph, while automakers want it to...

March 20, 2013 by Antony Ingram 20

Noisemaking Rules For Hybrids, Electric Cars Proposed By DoT

January 8, 2013 15

Regulators Still Pushing Hybrid, Electric Warning Sounds For The Blind

October 29, 2012 10

No Artificial Noises For Electric BMW i3 (Yet)

May 14, 2012 21

Hybrid Cars Safer To Crash In, Worse If You're A Pedestrian

There are many good reasons to drive a hybrid car, but did you know that one of them is improved safety levels? It's true - according to data gathered by the Highway Loss... November 17, 2011 by Antony Ingram 2

2012 Ford Focus Electric at 2011 Geneva Motor Show, photo by Robert Llewellyn

2012 Ford Focus Electric Won’t Have a Pedestrian Alert Noisemaker

For some time now there’s been a battle raging between politicians, advocacy groups and the electric car industry over compulsory noise-makers in electric cars. Now the... October 14, 2011 by Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield 12

2011 Chevrolet Equinox Sounds Quiet Enough For Better MPG

There are many ways of making a vehicle more fuel efficient. Improvements in engine technology, materials, rolling resistance and aerodynamics can all contribute towards... September 19, 2011 by Antony Ingram 6

2011 Lexus CT 200h compact hybrid hatchback, road test, June 2011

2012 Lexus CT 200h Hybrid Hatch: Now Louder, With More Noise!

You may or may not be happy to know that the new 2012 Lexus CT 200h compact hybrid hatchback will come with a new feature not found on the 2011 model. It will make more... August 12, 2011 by John Voelcker

Pedestrian Alert Noises Coming To Hybrid And Electric Cars, Needed Or Not

If you like the idea of hybrid or electric cars that whir silently down the road without the noise of an engine exploding gasoline thousands of times each minute, you'd... July 8, 2011 by John Voelcker 6

Electric Car Noise Generators Don't Work in the Real World

Earlier this year we heard that the a United Nations committee on noise levels in plug-in vehicles was about to mandate that all plug-in cars be made to emit artificial... April 5, 2011 by Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield 12

Has U.N. Doomed Quiet Electric Cars to a Life of Noise Making?

Should electric cars make noise? It’s one of the most contentious arguments in the electric vehicle world today, with passionate cases made on both sides for and... March 16, 2011 by Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield 9

To Sound or Not to Sound: Nissan Removes Beeper from U.K. Leaf

The automotive world is, it seems, a very strange place. Less than a month after Hyundai admitted it had delayed the 2011 Sonata Hybrid launch in the U.S. to remove a feature... March 1, 2011 by Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield 5

Ding-Ding-Ding! Electric Cars Likely To Be Made Noisier By Law

In one particularly hilarious scene in the TV show Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker’s soccer mom/drug dealer character inspires a scary drug lord to buy several Toyota Priuses... December 20, 2010 by VentureBeat's GreenBeat 19

Needed Or Not, Electric Car Noisemakers Are Going To Be Law

Although the relative silence of electric cars and hybrids was originally touted as one of their key beneficial attributes, alarmists have been less than enamored with the... December 14, 2010 by Viknesh Vijayenthiran 30