One thing I will miss when entering this future EV is the sound of a combustion engine. There is nothing like the roar of a V8 or the woosh of a turbo or the scream of a V10.
Unfortunately, EVs don’t make a lot of noise when driving. The Department of Transportation outlined rules in 2018 requiring electric (and hybrid) cars to make sounds at low speeds to alert pedestrians of their approach. This happened as traffic incident reports occurring due to pedestrians not hearing vehicles approaching. Therefore, automakers have developed sounds for them. Lotus expects your to work with music producer Patrick Patrikios, he will produce a wide range of sounds for his electric hypercar, the Evija.
The sound of the artificial engine is not something new. It has been a thing for years in vehicles like the Lexus LFA, VW GTI, Ford Focus ST and several BMWs. (BMW calls this Active Sound.) The engine’s sound is transmitted through the vehicle’s speakers to “improve” the sound environment. Sometimes it works. With EVs, however, this artificial sound can be taken to an entirely different level, as there is no engine to back up the artificial sound. All sound is artificial.
The starting point for Patrikios’ work was the legendary Lotus 49. If you don’t know the 49, it was a Cosworth-powered F1 car designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman. He raced in the 1967 F1 season, all the while making this glorious sound:
The 49 was chosen because of its importance to the Lotus brand. As Patrikios explained:
We wanted to create a sound landscape for Evija that was recognizable and distinctly Lotus. I sat down with the Hethel development team and discussed what it should be. We wanted something intrinsically connected to Lotus, so that we could define an audio project for its future electric cars.
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While working to perfect the sound of Evija’s “engine”, Patrikios and Lotus noticed that the sound of the decelerated engine was similar to the electrical noise that Evija’s engine makes. Therefore, when accelerating, Evija will use the sound of a 49 running from zero to 186 mph. Patrikios didn’t just make the engine sound for Evija. He also created all the tones the car will make, from seat belt indicators to door bells. With the future of Lotus being electric and with its impressive history of racing and racing cars, perhaps the artificial sounds are not so bad after all.