Nissan electric cars to get sci-fi sound effects

Sep 26 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

ELECTRIC cars planned for the North East could be loaded with flying saucer sound effects inspired by South Shields director Ridley Scott.

Sound engineers have been called in to make Nissan’s Leaf low carbon car just a little bit noisier amid worries the silent vehicle will be too difficult for pedestrians to hear.

In the USA law makers are considering whether it should be a legal requirement for electric cars to make more noise.

Those safety issues have seen an industry more at home selling low-noise benefits change tack drastically.

Nissan are to voluntarily look at adding futuristic sounds similar to the sound of flying cars in sci-fi films such as Blade Runner.

The work will feed into the production of the Leaf electric car. Nissan bosses are expected to reveal if the car will be produced at the company’s Sunderland factory within the next few weeks.

Cyclists or partially-sighted pedestrians are thought to be especially vulnerable to the almost noiseless cars.

Motoring bosses could have followed the example of Lotus Engineering and added an engine noise to the cars.

But instead they have gone for something a little more unusual. “We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art,” Nissan noise and vibration expert Toshiyuki Tabata said.

His sound engineering team “decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic”.

Mr Tabata has previously been responsible for making car engines quieter, but has spent the last three years looking for an acceptable solution to the peculiar problem.