EU Laws Requiring Audible Warning Sounds For Electric Cars Take Effect July 1

Starting July 1st, electric vehicles with four or more wheels must be fitted with an 'Acoustic Vehicle Alert System' (AVAS) if they want to be able to legally drive in the European Union. With AVAS, vehicles would make a continuous noise of at least 56 decibels if the car's going 20 km/h (12 mph) or slower. New Atlas reports: Designed to address the public's fear of quiet electric vehicles, the new laws require cars -- not motorcycles -- to make some kind of noise at slower speeds. The noise, which isn't prescribed to be any particular sound, must rise and fall in pitch to signal whether the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating.

Fifty-six decibels isn't particularly loud, mercifully -- it's about the sound level of a running air con unit or electric toothbrush. A diesel truck, for example, will make about 85 decibels when it passes, and the rules state that the warning sounds can't be any louder than 75 decibels, or about the noise level of a regular dinosaur burning car. So the AVAS systems will make no difference at all to people who walk around with earphones in. Jaguar has decided to go with a 'weird kind of spaceship sound,' while BMW has gone with something that sounds more like a traditional engine. Nissan 'seems to have gone for a bit of a jet airliner feel,' writes Loz Blain for New Atlas.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.