New EU regulation for electric cars

The installation of a warning sound generator has been mandatory for electric cars since 01.07.2019. In order to protect other road users, the Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System - AVAS must be installed in newly certified hybrid, electric and fuel cell car (including trucks and buses) until further notice. The warning noise is regulated in the EU up to a speed of 20 km/h. The regulation sets out comprehensive framework conditions for how an AVAS sound may and may not chime.

The sound experts in the acoustic test field at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center in Sindelfingen are working on giving the electrified Mercedes a voice. For this purpose, special microphones are used for each electric model in order to develop an individually tailored e-sound. In order to create the perfect sound, it is continuously simulated, measured, evaluated and consequently optimised. For the test drives, an artificial head, which is a special sound recording technique that comes close to the human hearing, is used to record the finest sounds.

Other countries other manners. The Mercedes Benz AVAS sound differs only slightly in the EU, Japan and China. But in countries like the USA there are other requirements, e.g. the volume. In addition the e-model has to produce a noise when the vehicle is in gear and that gets louder up to 30 km/h.  In almost all countries, the customer is not allowed to switch off the AVAS sound.

We look forward to further exciting advances in the electromobility.

Pictures: Daimler
Text: Britta Reineke