One thing you will miss in this future of electric vehicles is the sound of a combustion engine. There is nothing like the roar of a V8 or the shout of a turbo or the shout of a V10.
Unfortunately, electric vehicles do not emit much sound while driving. The Department of Transportation outlined the rules in 2018 which require electric cars (and hybrids) to emit low-speed sounds to alert pedestrians of their approach. This emerged as traffic incident reports which occurs due to pedestrians not hearing the approaching vehicles. So car manufacturers have been developing sounds for them. Lotus is waiting for his to work with music producer Patrick Patrikios will produce a range of sounds for their next electric hypercar, the Eviaja.
The artificial sound of the engine is nothing new. It has been a thing for years in vehicles like the Lexus LFA, VW GTI, Ford Focus ST and several BMWs. (BMW calls it active sound.) Engine sound is introduced through the vehicle’s speakers to “improve” the auditory environment. Sometimes it works. With electric vehicles, however, this artificial sound can be taken to a completely different level, as there is no motor that backs up the artificial sound. All the sound is artificial.
The starting point for Patrikios ’work was the legendary Lotus 49. If you’re not familiar with the 49, it was an F1 car with Cosworth technology designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman. He ran the 1967 F1 season, making this glorious sound:
The 49 was chosen for its importance to the Lotus brand. As Patrikios explained:
We wanted to create a soundscape for Evija that was in a recognizable and distinctive Lotus way. I sat down with the development team at Hethel and discussed what it should be like. We wanted something intrinsically connected to Lotus, so we could set up an audio plan for its future electric cars.
G / O Media may receive a commission
While working to perfect the sound of Evija’s “engine”, Patrikios and Lotus noticed that the sound of the 49’s engine slowed down similar to the electric noise generated by Evija’s engine. So when accelerating, the Evija will use the sound of a 49 going from zero to 186 mph. Patrikios not only made noise from Evija’s engine. He has also created all the tones that the car will make, from seat belt indicators to doorbells. With the future of electric Lotus and its impressive history of racing and roads, perhaps the artificial sounds will not be so bad after all.