Starting July 2019, all new electric and hybrid vehicles sold in Europe will have to emit a noise when travelling at low speeds. Current electric cars will also have to be retrofitted with devices by 2021.
Safety activists argued that pedestrians are at risk of being hit by electric vehicles travelling silently at low speeds in urban areas especially.
Under the new EU rules, manufacturers will have to fit an alert system to new electric vehicles so they can be heard at low speed. The rules state that an “acoustic vehicle alerting system” should be used at speeds up to 12.5mph, and also when reversing. They should also sound similar to a normal engine.
Chris Hanson-Abbot, owner of Brigade Electronics which distributes these safety devices, told the Daily Mail: “The objective is to have warnings which audible but which are not the least bit environmentally disturbing.”
The sound is said to be “white noise” that will cut out when a car goes above 20mph and is said to be “very pleasant”.
I am very curious to see how “very pleasant” will sound.
Those particularly at risk are blind people and cyclists listening to music through their headphones who are up to 40 per cent more likely to be hit by electric cars than conventional vehicles.
By 2030, there are predicted to be up to 9 million electric cars on UK roads.
Welcome to the future of driving! It's 2024 and sustainable cars are no longer a distant dream, but a reality. We're here to guide you through the best green cars on the market, championing not just style and performance, but also eco-friendliness. If you're ready to make a switch and…
A hybrid system, broadly defined, is any two power sources that combine to provide torque to drive a car's wheels. While most are hybrid-electric--a combustion engine plus one or two electric motors powered by a battery pack--other types exist as well. France's PSA Peugeot Citroën is experimenting with compressed-air hybrids,…
The use of Electric Vehicles has been touted as an eco-friendly and efficient method of transportation. Electric cars are said to be cheaper to run than their gas-powered counterparts, as well as cheaper to maintain. In addition, electric car manufacturers claim that their vehicles are less likely to roll over,…
