Photo: Skoda Auto
An entire world has gotten used to hearing a car’s approach – sometimes even before seeing it coming from around the corner. That’s particularly useful for pedestrians and bikers, for example, and could potentially prevent an accident. But electric vehicles are way more silent than their ICE counterparts, particularly at lower speeds.
No worries, because now there’s something called the Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS) system – at least in Europe, where the EU has deemed it mandatory. It’s a simple, artificial sound that’s easy to hear from the outside of the vehicle that plays below a certain speed threshold.
Because automakers are forced to use it anyway, they’re now discovering a new way of standing out in a crowd by making their electric vehicle sound unique. If you have ever driven a recent model year Renault Zoe you’ve already heard that spaceship-like alien noise it makes when cruising at low speeds.
Mercedes-Benz even took things a little further with the introduction of the EQC 4x4² that featured something called “lampspeakers” - basically turning the headlights into external speakers. Now, Skoda is also joining the AVAS party with its own, unique take.
The Czech subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group just revealed the first details about its own external soundtrack in a short video (embedded below) for the Enyaq iV crossover, the company’s first fully electric vehicle (and sibling of the VW ID.4).
Apparently, the “specially composed harmonic sound” was concocted in-house by the brand’s specialists working in partnership with a team of composers.
“The Enyaq iV is an all-electric car, so it was quite a challenge to design a sound to match its identity. The sound was fine-tuned in the Volkswagen Group’s acoustic laboratory. One thing was clear from the start: it must be noticeably different from the sound emitted by plug-in hybrids,” explains Pavel Orendáš, who led the process at the Skoda development center.
Unfortunately, although the company says it went for an “electronic and futuristic feel” to distance itself from other rivals that tried to mimic the “voice” of an internal combustion engine, our first opinion on the matter is it sounds utterly boring. If only they heard Hennessey’s HPE850 take of the Shelby GT350R a little in advance...
Because automakers are forced to use it anyway, they’re now discovering a new way of standing out in a crowd by making their electric vehicle sound unique. If you have ever driven a recent model year Renault Zoe you’ve already heard that spaceship-like alien noise it makes when cruising at low speeds.
Mercedes-Benz even took things a little further with the introduction of the EQC 4x4² that featured something called “lampspeakers” - basically turning the headlights into external speakers. Now, Skoda is also joining the AVAS party with its own, unique take.
The Czech subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group just revealed the first details about its own external soundtrack in a short video (embedded below) for the Enyaq iV crossover, the company’s first fully electric vehicle (and sibling of the VW ID.4).
Apparently, the “specially composed harmonic sound” was concocted in-house by the brand’s specialists working in partnership with a team of composers.
“The Enyaq iV is an all-electric car, so it was quite a challenge to design a sound to match its identity. The sound was fine-tuned in the Volkswagen Group’s acoustic laboratory. One thing was clear from the start: it must be noticeably different from the sound emitted by plug-in hybrids,” explains Pavel Orendáš, who led the process at the Skoda development center.
Unfortunately, although the company says it went for an “electronic and futuristic feel” to distance itself from other rivals that tried to mimic the “voice” of an internal combustion engine, our first opinion on the matter is it sounds utterly boring. If only they heard Hennessey’s HPE850 take of the Shelby GT350R a little in advance...
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