Why are electric vehicles so silent compared to gas vehicles?

There is no exhaust system, no internal combustion to make noise.

Gasoline engines are by definition internal combustion engines, they are powered by continual explosions of ignited gasoline and oxygen that moves the pistons.

A gas engine would be much louder without its muffler. To completely eliminate the noise on a gas powered vehicle you would have to block the exhaust, which would mean the engine could not run.

Electric vehicles don;t have an explosionm the jsut run silently.

Actually, that’s one of the concerns about electric cars – that blind people, especially, won’t hear the vehicles and could step off the curb right into one. Last I knew they were going to address that.

I have a hybrid, and several times when I was new to driving it, I left it running when I went into a store because I thought it was off. It’s not silent all the time though, like I’m guessing electric cars are.

@smudges That is why my Hybrid and electric cars like Teslas now make a noise. My Honda hybrid makes a sound like music on a distant radio when it is in EV mode and under 20 mph.

^^ Cool! I’m glad they took care of that little oversight. Thanks for letting me know.

Electric vehicles should make Jetson car noises.

Anything else is an abomination.

There has actually been discussion about making electric vehicles make noise, to help with pedestrians.

@filmfann – check out @zenvelo‘s comment to me above.

They run on electricity which is quiet. I was riding my bike and I heard some sand crunch differently and not like my bike so I turned around and saw a blue Tesla behind me! They should make some sound.

Manufacturers are making EVs generate sounds these days. My Hyundai PHEV generates sounds similar to the motor in Disneyland’s Mr. Toads ride. Very utilitarian – makes me think there is a golf cart nearby. My wife’s PHEV Honda make angelic sounds. Makes me look for angels.

The sound they should all make is an angry German shouting “Aus dem Weg, Geringverdiener!”

Thank you all for all the great answers. I will say I haven’t considered that electric cars are to silent. My husband recently came back from a trip with his brother in his electric car. He said he brother kept speeding which we both know is unusual for him. He generally drives like an old lady but because the car is silent he kept pushing on the accelerator and then kept having to break when he realized he was going too quick.

I want a car that sounds like the car in The Absent-minded Professor. It ran on flubber and made bubble-popping noises.

I don’t have a Tesla but I know that if you go to their main page you will find S3XY on the top of the page.