What should an EV sound like?

I spent a couple of hours last week in the company of Steve Levine. The name might not be familiar but his client list will be – Culture Club, The Beach Boys, Motorhead, etc, etc. From his garden shed studio, record producer Steve is working with tech firm Harman to create sounds for electric vehicles (EVs) so visually impaired pedestrians don’t get run over. Obviously there aren’t many EVs on the road at the moment but the number is set to grow. Harman has done its own research on what drivers want, and the answer is it depends on the type of car. Family drivers want something fairly dull and uninteresting, sports car owners want something a bit more involving. The EU is looking at how this issue should be regulated, but with no legislation in place right now Steve has a blank canvas. It’s purely a research project at the moment so there’s scope for some fairly wacky stuff – think space ships – but serious thought is going into Steve’s work. Take the issue of volume; how loud should an EV be? In urban areas you get ‘noise reflection’ from buildings so arguably it doesn’t need to be as loud as in the country, where hedges just absorb the sound and offer no bounce-back and there may be less pedestrians anyway. Will future EVs be smart enough to know where they are and if people are present then adjust the volume accordingly? Perhaps.