According to the government, electric cars should emit either a natural or artificial sound to alert people nearby.
The Automotive Industry Standards Committee (AISC) proposed a set of standards that will require all electric cars to emit some kind of sound to alert pedestrians and people nearby.
The norms are applicable to both passenger cars as well as goods carriers. These latest draft standards might soon be inducted into the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, by its Technical Standing Committee.
As per the new rules, EV manufacturers need to work on their powertrains to make them produce some kind of sound on the move. If such a thing couldn’t be achieved, an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS), that’s similar to a loud speaker, needs to be installed.
But, the problem is that such a loud speaker might drain the battery even further when manufacturers are already facing a lot of trouble with respect to increasing the real-world range of their EVs.
While sound does alert nearby people, it will also cause noise pollution in the long run. Also, these norms come at a time when manufacturers like Hyundai have mastered the art of making nearly silent IC engines.
Once these standards are implemented, EV manufacturers are expected to introduce helical gear pair primary transmissions in their offerings to produce a whining note.
Currently 2 wheeler manufacturers – Harley Davidson and Triumph have adopted a similar strategy in their EVs for producing natural sound from their EV powertrains.
At the end of the day, sound energy comes at the expense of something else, namely battery charge.