They DID that in the early electric and hybrid vehicles. Especially hybrids, when they'd switch over to electric, early drivers would think they stalled out, and would stop, put it in park, and turn the key again. So they added little engine noise speakers under the dash.
If you are talking about a sound.....really? Your entire argument against electric cars is it doesn't go VROOM VROOM!!! haha strange, but like notman pointed out I'm sure someone will make a silly sound add-on that does nothing but drain battery power, hahahaha.
Well, it's not too silly of an argument. Feeling and hearing the engine are what muscle car enthusiasts like.
Its the same reason I hate the rumble-free PS3 controllers.
At the bare minimum, 50% of driving in the US is to/from work commutes and in-city driving. If we can get all of those people using pure electric cars, we'd not only dramatically extend the availability of our remaining fossil fuels, but we'd also eliminate an unthinkable amount of green house gasses.
I'm personally rather appalled that it's taken this long for pure electric cars to start being produced. If we invested even 5% of the resources we spend on military each year into battery research, we'd already have the power issue solved.
As for that Tesla, aside from the all-suede interior, I love it. Nice and sleek. We need to get these electric cars under $20,000 though. Pronto.
As Notman noticed I never said electric cars cant be fast. That Lotus Europa turned crazy electric car that Dodge was showing off (Circuit EV?) looked pretty cool and all, but how can you enjoy a car that just goes "WHIIZZZZZZ" when you step on it? I dont care if it can go 0-60 .5 tenths faster than my car if it costs $100,000 and sounds like a fly on a megaphone.
A great car is not just performance numbers. A car has to feel good, sound good, AND drive well. And yeah it sure would help if you could go to the nearest city without having to charge it for 45min or buy it for the cost of a small house.
(and Texas isn't the only state that's large, when I lived in Illinois I put on miles like crazy without ever leaving the state)
Eh!? Did you mean cira, as in the Latin word for approximate? Like cira 600 BC? Or are you talking about tech? Ya lost me there...
I agree about the sound and feel, its probably why most people will add a electric car to their garage but it won't out right replace the traditional car.
All this electric car talk has made me nostalgic. Growing up my dad had a 68 Camaro 2nd owner, my brother had a 64 Mustang, then wraped it around the back bumper of another car, and when we pieced it back together from pieces from a 64 and a 65. In high school I had a 72 Nova (what a project that was, when it was running it was a blast). A friend of mine had a 69 el Camino, his dad had a 65 Nova and his mom drove (actually to and from work) a 68 Charger, I think she finally parked it a few years back. I 'm not sure what I miss more the noise, the smell or just working on something that wasn't made out of tinfoil.
It's going to be a very different world. But realistically its probably for the better =/. It will make taking the old classics out for a spin even more of a thrill.
I'm not so sure it will be polution revolution, China and India bring more and more coal power plants on online every week. Not to mention they're populations are mobilizing at crazy fast rates. At some point it won't matter if the US switched over most drivers to electric if we don't get China and India on board. Of course, then they build more coal plants and probably end up making a bigger mess...
Most fossil fuel engines range around 20-25% efficiency. That means at least 70% of the energy is wasted in the form of heat. Even if we use alternative fuels, the combustion engine is just a stupid design, period. By comparison, electric engine's are around 85-95% efficient. If a gas engine was that efficient, you'd get 100 miles per gallon of gas.
While a car is meant for transportation, enjoyment is certainly a part of that. I think it's less a matter of adding noise to the vehicle and more about us getting out of that auditory mindset. A quieter vehicle is less noise pollution in the environment, meaning you can hear your music easier or actually have a conversation at normal volume.
Recharging is a concern for the long distance travelers though, no doubt. I think as the tech improves, so will the mileage per charge. For the majority of drivers in the US though, 300miles per charge is more than enough for day to day use.
but how can you enjoy a car that just goes "WHIIZZZZZZ" when you step on it?
I can enjoy it just fine. Hooray for choice.
The combustion engine isn't going away anytime soon so you have no worries. In fact, the more of these electrics get on the market the cheaper gas will be for everyone else.
At the bare minimum, 50% of driving in the US is to/from work commutes and in-city driving. If we can get all of those people using pure electric cars, we'd not only dramatically extend the availability of our remaining fossil fuels, but we'd also eliminate an unthinkable amount of green house gasses.
I'm slightly disturbed by the large amount of people I see when I park my car at the train station that are using SUVs to drive to and from a train station that is at most a mile from their house...
yeah, the Dodge Circuit EV is basically a fully electric conversion of a Lotus Europa that they got to put out faster times than the gas variant.
Pretty cool, but I doubt it will be entering my price range any time soon...I dont really get the idea of leaving the "auditory mindset," I'm a very audio-visual focused person, I love sound and I love music a hell of a lot and the sound that my car makes is music to my ears. Nothing else sounds like a big v8 sucking air through a big intake and shooting out the products of combustion through a true dual exhaust setup...And hearing the symphony of sounds that the car produces just cant be replaced for me, regardless of equivalent performance numbers.
All the same there are days when my stereo overpowers my engine and those times sound just as sweet! I've never had a problem having a conversation in my car other than occasionally sucking the breath out of a passenger as I hammer on the throttle and catch them off guard, ha ha.
On an off note, I wonder how super quiet electric cars will effect collisions and other car "accidents." Not very many people could say they never heard my car coming...but I can only imagine how many parking lot impacts will take place when you cant hear anything coming as you back out of the spot...
I feel ya Sandbag, but look at todays cars. Most are 4-6 cylinder engines, and are designed to be as quiet as possible in the passenger compartment. My Jetta is one of those oddities, where they intentionally designed it to transfer some of the throatiness from the engine, into the passenger area. But even that is only noticeable when I'm on the throttle.
I can't tell you how many times I've rolled up on people and scared the shit out of them, because they are walking merrily along in the parking lot, wondering back and forth, then see my car out of the corner of their eyes.
Hell, I had one guy walk right in front of my car in the road (residential area), and then proceeded to walk down the center of the road with no idea I was behind him. I tapped my horn, which scared the shit out of him, and of course, immediately made him wanting to fight me.
Anyway, my point is, electric cars aren't going to lead us to this.... it already exists with current gas cars
Yeah i think the thought that the electric car will kill the "car sound" is pretty absurd. There has been a big movement in the past 10 years to cut down on noise polution, which i think is fantastic. There is little that bothers me more than asshole rednecks that chop off their exhaust to make their truck/cheap sports car sound like a fucking jet engine.
Sandbag, just wait until your paying the same price for gas as the rest of the world, I think you wont love driving your V8 when it costs $8-12 a gallon and to drive your car costs over $200 to fill up every week. There is nothing wrong with having a car like yours, but when your transportation costs get close to, or over $1000 a month... I think an electric car like tesla would be sounding pretty good.
One of the best parts about the electric motor is the fact it has less parts that need regular maintenance. That would be a huge savings for most people.
Don't you hippies watch movies? When the world ends the survivors are going to be the ones with v8's and sawed off shotguns. You'll be hard pressed to survive the apocalypse in a Prius.
Also I never said a cheap sports car with a 6" exhaust was a beautiful sounding vehicle...You do realize that most of those cars are sporting 4 cylinders right?
Don't you hippies watch movies? When the world ends the survivors are going to be the ones with v8's and sawed off shotguns. You'll be hard pressed to survive the apocalypse in a Prius.
gas runs out fast in a disaster, I'd want something that ran off of ethanol cuz you can make it yourself and also drink it to ease the pain of living in a post-apocolyptic wasteland.
As a matter of fact, where would I charge it at work if I needed to?
If I lived in a downtown area, what about there? There's no garages. Not sure how the city would feel if you plugged into their electricity.
.
this is probably because you live in texas. here in LA we have a charge station at almost every public parking area.
there is a tesla store right by my house, i think the cars look pretty ridiculous though, not something i would want to drive.
Replies
Well, it's not too silly of an argument. Feeling and hearing the engine are what muscle car enthusiasts like.
Its the same reason I hate the rumble-free PS3 controllers.
Thank you, the last time i saw it still said 220.
Ideal for me would be 15 min charge time with a 450 mile range, for $25k and AWD.
EDIT:
skanker, Yeah i know who doesn't want a vibrator in their controller.
I'm personally rather appalled that it's taken this long for pure electric cars to start being produced. If we invested even 5% of the resources we spend on military each year into battery research, we'd already have the power issue solved.
As for that Tesla, aside from the all-suede interior, I love it. Nice and sleek. We need to get these electric cars under $20,000 though. Pronto.
I haven't read the thread yet so sorry if someone mentioned this, but next will be the BlueStar with a goal of $20,000
A great car is not just performance numbers. A car has to feel good, sound good, AND drive well. And yeah it sure would help if you could go to the nearest city without having to charge it for 45min or buy it for the cost of a small house.
(and Texas isn't the only state that's large, when I lived in Illinois I put on miles like crazy without ever leaving the state)
I agree about the sound and feel, its probably why most people will add a electric car to their garage but it won't out right replace the traditional car.
All this electric car talk has made me nostalgic. Growing up my dad had a 68 Camaro 2nd owner, my brother had a 64 Mustang, then wraped it around the back bumper of another car, and when we pieced it back together from pieces from a 64 and a 65. In high school I had a 72 Nova (what a project that was, when it was running it was a blast). A friend of mine had a 69 el Camino, his dad had a 65 Nova and his mom drove (actually to and from work) a 68 Charger, I think she finally parked it a few years back. I 'm not sure what I miss more the noise, the smell or just working on something that wasn't made out of tinfoil.
It's going to be a very different world. But realistically its probably for the better =/. It will make taking the old classics out for a spin even more of a thrill.
I'm not so sure it will be polution revolution, China and India bring more and more coal power plants on online every week. Not to mention they're populations are mobilizing at crazy fast rates. At some point it won't matter if the US switched over most drivers to electric if we don't get China and India on board. Of course, then they build more coal plants and probably end up making a bigger mess...
While a car is meant for transportation, enjoyment is certainly a part of that. I think it's less a matter of adding noise to the vehicle and more about us getting out of that auditory mindset. A quieter vehicle is less noise pollution in the environment, meaning you can hear your music easier or actually have a conversation at normal volume.
Recharging is a concern for the long distance travelers though, no doubt. I think as the tech improves, so will the mileage per charge. For the majority of drivers in the US though, 300miles per charge is more than enough for day to day use.
I can enjoy it just fine. Hooray for choice.
The combustion engine isn't going away anytime soon so you have no worries. In fact, the more of these electrics get on the market the cheaper gas will be for everyone else.
I'm slightly disturbed by the large amount of people I see when I park my car at the train station that are using SUVs to drive to and from a train station that is at most a mile from their house...
Pretty cool, but I doubt it will be entering my price range any time soon...I dont really get the idea of leaving the "auditory mindset," I'm a very audio-visual focused person, I love sound and I love music a hell of a lot and the sound that my car makes is music to my ears. Nothing else sounds like a big v8 sucking air through a big intake and shooting out the products of combustion through a true dual exhaust setup...And hearing the symphony of sounds that the car produces just cant be replaced for me, regardless of equivalent performance numbers.
All the same there are days when my stereo overpowers my engine and those times sound just as sweet! I've never had a problem having a conversation in my car other than occasionally sucking the breath out of a passenger as I hammer on the throttle and catch them off guard, ha ha.
On an off note, I wonder how super quiet electric cars will effect collisions and other car "accidents." Not very many people could say they never heard my car coming...but I can only imagine how many parking lot impacts will take place when you cant hear anything coming as you back out of the spot...
I can't tell you how many times I've rolled up on people and scared the shit out of them, because they are walking merrily along in the parking lot, wondering back and forth, then see my car out of the corner of their eyes.
Hell, I had one guy walk right in front of my car in the road (residential area), and then proceeded to walk down the center of the road with no idea I was behind him. I tapped my horn, which scared the shit out of him, and of course, immediately made him wanting to fight me.
Anyway, my point is, electric cars aren't going to lead us to this.... it already exists with current gas cars
One of the best parts about the electric motor is the fact it has less parts that need regular maintenance. That would be a huge savings for most people.
Also I never said a cheap sports car with a 6" exhaust was a beautiful sounding vehicle...You do realize that most of those cars are sporting 4 cylinders right?
gas runs out fast in a disaster, I'd want something that ran off of ethanol cuz you can make it yourself and also drink it to ease the pain of living in a post-apocolyptic wasteland.
this is probably because you live in texas. here in LA we have a charge station at almost every public parking area.
there is a tesla store right by my house, i think the cars look pretty ridiculous though, not something i would want to drive.