Noisemaker

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker

    Electric cars are quiet. Perhaps that's a statement of the obvious, but for many owners, it's one of their cars' best features. Little noise, a smooth drivetrain, low running costs, environmental responsibility--it all adds up to an appealing package. Regulatory bodies seem to feel electric cars are a little too quiet, though, posing a danger to pedestrians. As a result, several are in the process of drawing up legislation that will require car companies to add noisemakers to electric vehicles--to warn those around them who expect a vehicle to be audible of their presence. But if one thing is...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker
    Will Europe Too Write Rules To Make Quiet Electric Cars Noisier?

    This one just isn't going to go away, is it? A member of the UK parliament is set to raise concerns that electric cars are "a new threat" to pedestrians due to their low levels of noise. Mary Glindon, Labour Party constituent in North Tyneside, cites statistics from the Guide Dogs charity that from...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound 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...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker
    Noisemaking Rules For Hybrids, Electric Cars Proposed By DoT

    The U.S. Department of Transport has become the latest group to look further into noisemaking devices for electric and hybrid vehicles. Several pressure and safety groups have proposed such devices in the past, reasoning that the silent nature of cars using electric power at low speeds would prove...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker
    Regulators Still Pushing Hybrid, Electric Warning Sounds For The Blind

    The debate continues over the danger of electric cars and hybrids to blind pedestrians, as regulators are once again pushing for these vehicles to be fitted with noise-generators. Advocacy groups for the blind and other research groups suggest the lack of noise from vehicles with electric...

  • BMW i3 Concept
    No Artificial Noises For Electric BMW i3 (Yet)

    Put most people behind the wheel of an electric car, and you can guarantee one of the first things they'll talk about is the silence. Unfortunately, that silence has led some legislators to require EVs to emit a sound in order to warn pedestrians of their presence, stifling one of the genre's...

  • 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid

    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 Data Institute (via Automotive News), crashing in hybrid vehicles like the Honda Accord Hybrid or Toyota Highlander Hybrid is less likely to result in injury compared to an equivalent regular gasoline car. On average, the odds are 25 percent lower. Heavier still equals safer One major factor seems to be the extra weight that hybrids carry in batteries and electrical systems. At this point, safety begins to come down to...

  • 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 latest twist comes courtesy of Ford, which has announced that its 2012 Ford Focus Electric will initially ship without any...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ
    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 making a car easier on gas than its predecessor. How about making it quieter? You may think making a car quieter at speed might...

  • 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 noise. For 2012, in addition to an optional F Sport package and a new color (Nebula Gray Pearl replaces Smoky Granite Mica, if...

  • Toyota Prius body damage
    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 better act fast. The U.S. government is moving inexorably toward a rule requiring all hybrid and electric cars to make noise...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    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 noises when traveling at low speed. But as we’ve illustrated in the past, we’re not entirely convinced that forcing...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker

    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 against warning systems designed to announce the presence of a plug-in car to pedestrians. But early reports coming out of a recent United Nations committee on noise levels in plug-in vehicles suggest that all electric cars will soon be expected to emit warning noises at low speed. Back in May last year, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Council for the Blind and the National Federation for the Blind...

  • 2011 Nissan Leaf
    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 that let the driver disable its virtual engine sound at speeds below 12 miles per hour, Nissan Europe has confirmed that it...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker
    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 after he successfully carries out a drive-by shooting while riding in hers. The selling point? The quietness of the hybrid...

  • Lotus Safe & Sound noisemaker
    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 perceived difficulty involved in hearing one coming, especially advocates of the blind and the seeing impaired. While critics...

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