Automotive News reporter Richard Truett (2023) complains that high-performance electric vehicles can get “boring” because they lack the “precise mechanical symphony” of an internal-combustion engine. The result is that they can become just “another disposable appliance.”
At issue is not EV performance, which can match or exceed an ICE car when it comes to torque, horsepower and 0-to-60 times. Truett says the problem is a lack of engine sounds. This can make it impossible for him to distinguish a Lucid Air from a Lotus Eletre if he sat in each when blindfolded.
“Today’s EVs, be they high-performance, low-performance or somewhere in between, are homogenized, pasteurized and sanitized,” Truett (2023) says. “They have no soul compared with most internal combustion engine vehicles.”
Automakers have been experimenting with pumping “fake sounds into the interior through speakers,” Truett (2023) notes, but “it’s not the same as the sound from an internal combustion engine, and it doesn’t fool anyone.”
In a back-handed way Truett (2023) acknowledges that his attitude may be rather old school. “It could be that future generations of drivers, weaned on electronic devices from crib to curb, won’t care about hearing and feeling an automobile’s powertrain. I hope that’s not the case. I want Mustang Mach-Es to inspire the same type of passion in future collectors as the 1965 Mustang.”
Counterpoint: Quieter cars are better
I disagree with Truett. If I could drive a convertible sports car with the top down on a favorite mountain road, I would much rather do it in an EV. The sound from a gas engine gets in the way of connecting with the world around me — in much the same way that I enjoy being in a kayak more than a motorized boat.
In addition, I think it’s great that EVs are quieter than ICE cars because noise pollution has been a downside of an auto-dominated transportation system. According to a World Health Organization report, noise from roads can be almost as harmful to human health as air pollution (Wilson, 2020).
Also see ‘Automotive News fails to mention obvious ways to cut weight of EVs’
Ninety-seven percent of Americans are routinely exposed to traffic noises above 50 decibels. This can activate our nervous system’s “fight-or-flight” response, which pumps “our bodies full of stress hormones that increase our blood pressure, accelerate our heart rates, and weaken our vascular and digestive systems over time” (Wilson, 2020).
The insidious part of noise pollution is that you might not notice how it impacts you, yet it can trigger hormones even when you sleep — “preventing our brains from entering the most restful stages of rest” (Wilson, 2020).
Was Truett’s column written by his inner 14 year old?
What’s the big deal about engine noises? If they are anything like loud music, they may stimulate a part of the brain that releases endorphins “that has a similar effect to alcohol or drugs” (Wakka, 2023).
Research has found that adolescents are particularly attracted to loud music. Their impulse control is less well developed than with adults, so their search for immediate gratification can be powerful. A. Wolfe (2015) suggested that readers “imagine a brain that is constantly seeking pleasure, being bombarded with sensory information, and having trouble suppressing impulses. It’s chaos. Loud music seems to be the answer for all these problems.”
Also see ‘Gallup finds attitudes toward EVs vary sharply by party and age’
Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin has argued that a person’s taste in music is imprinted by age 14 (Wolfe, 2015). If that’s the case, might one’s attraction to automotive noises be set around the same time? Indeed, was Truett’s latest column essentially written by his inner 14 year old?
Perhaps, but even though I liked loud music and cars when I was 14, neither has much appeal to me a half century later. Of course, this may very well represent a minority opinion among car buffs. The reader response was mostly hostile to a recent Automotive News story about Dodge’s transition to EVs (go here).
That said, might there be a market for a sports car that takes full advantage of its quietness by reconnecting the driver to the world around them — kind of like an electric version of an early, open-air Corvette? Might a recent Corvette feel boring in comparison because it isolates the driver inside a veritable cocoon?
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Truett, Richard; 2023. “The next EV challenge: How to create character, personality.” Automotive News (subscription required). Posted Nov. 21.
- Wakka, Linda; 2023. “Why do young people like Loud Music?” Soundsphere. Accessed Nov. 21.
- Wilson, Kea; 2020. “The Other Type of Car Pollution That Harms Us All.” StreetsBlogUSA. Posted Sept. 14.
- Wolfe, A.; 2015. “There Are Scientific Reasons Your Teen Loves Loud Music.” Participant Media. Posted July 12.
Some readers prefer to send a note to the editor rather than make a regular comment. BM did the former, which I’d like to share with you because he didn’t label it as confidential:
“I disagree with Richard. The utter silence and smoothness of the EV are essential to its personality. These qualities are what Cadillac attempted to achieve with the V16 and Chrysler with the Turbine Ghia. I believe Dodge is making a mistake with its Vroom motor for the Charger EV. A few years on it will seem corny and silly.”
I think the reporter is wrong about high performance BEVs. The sporting car with ICE is one paradigm, with which we all have a great deal of experience. it would be interesting to see what the sporting car BEV paradigm becomes. It’s not wrong, it’s different. BEVs have never been this fully developed (at least in recent times) and we have very little to no idea what will become acceptable or desirable in the future.
To your point about noise pollution: I frequent a nice suburban park a few miles from my house, but since it is situated between two expressways, I can never fully get away from the sound of traffic. I’m a car guy, but there are times I want to escape into the woods without any other sounds than the ones of nature. It’s increasingly difficult to do so.