Electric cars were supposed to be less noisy than internal combustion engines. In fact, they are so quiet that manufacturers have to add “pedestrian warning sounds” to make sure pedestrians can hear cars and make way for them. However I can hear them when sitting in my apartment with the windows open. Or when I’m just walking around in the city. In the end, I find some of them more noisy and annoying than internal combustion engines when they are moving at low speed.
So far the most noisy electric cars to me are Hyundai and Chevrolet.
I know they are just complying with safety regulations in their own way. After all, people can’t drive a two ton lethal silent vehicle at speed in compact and dense urban environments without at least making some sort of alien spaceship noise, for safety. But it’s making some electric cars annoying to me. So in the not so distant future, living in a city will sound like this?!
So, aside from those two, what are the other brands that are making their electric cars more noisy and annoying than cars with internal combustion engines?
So I looked into it a tiny bit, and I am not surprised. These tires can reduce noise a bit indeed: mainly FOR THE PEOPLE INSIDE THE CAR because those notice it more now where they used to not notice it much because of their own engine being louder in the cabin.
Even if newer tires end up making it relatively more silent than older tires, the heavier vehicles (ever larger SUV’s + very heavy battery) will probably mean it’s a zero sum game compared to the old cars and tires. There is no magic tire eliminating the rubber-road surface noise. Cars on roads are noisy, the only thing effectively keeping the noise down is speed reduction in cities or building expensive tunnels.