Silent electric vehicles: What’s all the noise about?

Wow. For decades, I used the excuse “loud pipes save lives” to justify motorcycle exhaust systems that unleashed furious power – and noise.

To me, it seemed that in the case of internal combustion engine vehicles, sound equals power equals speed equals cool.

Over time (i.e. as I got older) I realised that riding defensively and anticipating driver behaviour actually made a far bigger difference as cars became better insulated from outside noise.

But like any revhead, the noise was addictive because of what it meant. Now, we are told, noise can in fact save lives. Is this a highly emotional reaction to the loss of power, or just another pretext to slow down the rise of electrics?

Read the full story on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle-dedicated site, The Driven…

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