vehicles are make noise with the engine and wheels, so light electric vehicles are super quiet, but heavy vehicles tend to be loud regardless when moving fast
I also thought EVs would be quieter but as they became more common in my street I noticed they’re only a little quieter than internal combustion cars from the moment they reach a certain speed (say 30km/h).
Most of the noise comes from the tire friction and aerodynamics.
Isn’t it also the case that a big heavy car with gigantic tires is louder than a lighter car with narrower tires? A Tesla Model X is pretty dang loud at 45 MPH, compared to something like a BMW i3 that weighs half as much and looks like it wears bicycle tires.
At slow speeds gas cars are very quiet. Most noise from a car is wind and tire noise. Of course as cars age parts wear out and start making more noise. Some of those noises are common with electric, some are not.
The video partially contradicts that. Electric motors are quieter than engines, but tire noise tends to be higher, since EVs tend to be heavier than their gas equivalents.
I would, though, definitely like to banish the sound of idling diesel engines from cities. Replace diesel buses and garbage trucks, and fine the operators of ships, trains, and heavy industrial equipment based on the amount of noise they generate in an urban area.
Have you ever lived next to a road in a city? I can tell you that the most noise comes from revving engines.
There is a also a massive difference between noise a normally driven ICE vehicle makes compared to an electric one at city speeds. The electric ones are very silent and barely audible if they don't make that humming sound. Even at 20-30mph.
From about 30kph up the rolling noise is higher than the engine noise of most cars. That's why teslas and other huge electric cars are actually quite loud (huge tires + heavy weight)
> Modern cars with functioning mufflers or electric powertrains... aren't actually that loud.
Until their tires hit asphalt. Cars have to go very slowly for the engine to be louder than the tires, and that noise is a function of weight, and electric cars are heavier than equivalent ICE cars.
I live outside the city, so I know the difference in sound at high speed when they pass by. It makes a great difference. Combustion vs electric but also the manufacturing and damping of the wheels etc.
With cars, at highway speeds, you're right - but engine noise is a much more significant factor for motorcycles (some of which are absurdly loud) and heavy trucks/buses.
In built-up cities, like London, these vehicles are usually traveling at relatively low speeds anyway, so it's really engine noise that is the problem.
Yeah EVs are significantly quieter in cities where they're going slowly and tyre noise is relatively low.
Not going to make as much difference if you live near a motorway though since the tyre noise there is really really loud. (I still think it might make some difference though because engines going at 70mph are really loud too.)
When driven normally (or considerately) the engine noise of a petrol car is barely perceptible above the noise of the tyres on the road. EVs are heavier than petrol cars so will produce even more road noise. Also, in many places EVs will be required to produce an artificial sound in addition to the road noise.
The thing with sound is our perceptible dynamic range is huge. If you live in a city you probably don't think regular car noise is that bad. That's because your noise floor is really, really high. When you're out in the countryside with no wind, a single car is the loudest thing for miles around.
So, at low speeds (when tyre noise isn't noticeable) most EVs add a noise, because in many jurisdictions they're required to do so and there are no jurisdictions where it's illegal for cars to make a noise because historically yeah, they're cars, they make a noise.
At higher speeds you can here something moving - there are tyres rolling at high speed over a stone-like surface and that's inherently noisy no matter if there's an engine of any sort.
True, all vehicles (ICE or EV) are fairly noisy at highway speeds outside, though a pickup truck with highway tires isn’t much noisier than say Corolla or a Nissan Leaf moving at the same speed. Off road tires, particularly mud terrain tires, can get noisy though, as those tires were optimized for grip in mud rather than noise or highway fuel efficiency.
Cars aren't loud because of the engines. A Tesla driving by isn't much louder than an equivalent ICE-powered alternative. A lot of the noise is the air resistance and the tyres.
Even modern combustion engines are still pretty noisy at low speeds compared to EVs. Especially when starting up or when revving to pull away at an intersection. At < 12 mph they’re not displacing enough air to make a “whoosh”!
Diesel engines, endemic in Europe even in small cars, are particularly noisy.
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