Developed after several institutions and organizations signaled a possible problem for pedestrians because of the lack of sound generated by the EV, Nissan's system, called Approaching Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians, will be first tested on the Nissan Fuga hybrid later this fall.
As you already read, the system sweeps from 2.5kHz at the high end to a low of 600Hz. The sound emitted by the system is louder when the car starts, is released as an intermittent sound when the car is in reverse and is disengaged when the Leaf exceeds 30 km/h (18 mph).
Below is a video showing how the Approaching Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians came to be and, if you are patient enough, you will even hear the Leaf towards the end of the video.
Sounds for electric vehicles are likely to turn in the years to come into a market of their own. As Lotus and Halosonic have previewed a while back, the sky is the limit for the sounds your EV can make. In Lotus' case, for instance, a Toyota Prius was taken for a spin while humming noises imitating anything from a muscle V12 to Enterprise's warp engines.
Nissan's system, however, will be the first to have received some type of approval from several universities and institutes.
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