Are Electric Cars Really that Quiet?
Something’s been bugging me and I’ve got to get it off my chest.
The electric car has an undeniable role to play in combating climate change. When it comes to reducing harmful emissions from individual transportation, count me in! But passionate environmentalists have thrown their support behind the electric car and tried to convert others by any means necessary.
Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. The truth is that while fervent tree-huggers sing the praises of electric cars, there’s a flaw in their argument. How often do we hear about how quiet these vehicles are? “You’ll see,” they say, “electric cars are incredibly quiet.”
That’s not entirely true. Sure, the motor makes almost no noise. When you’re behind the wheel of an electric car, the only things you hear are the faint hum of the motor and a far-off whistling sound. This breezy noise actually comes from the tires rolling on the asphalt.
Truth be told, electric cars don’t make much noise during accelerations, especially if you compare them to cars with a small engine capacity. But an electric motor has to be pushed to its limit to reach a respectable speed of 100 km/h.
Travelling a good speed, only the Tesla Model S and Model X are truly silent. If you pick up the pace in your Nissan LEAF (or Kia Soul EV, electric Ford Focus, BMW i3 or Mitsubishi i-MiEV), you get a lot of wind noise—a lot more than in a gas-powered Buick, for example.