Tesla electric cars now available with V8 exhaust sound
A UK firm has invented a bolt-on exhaust system that make electric cars sound like a V8, V10 or V12.
Did you crave the performance of a Tesla electric car but miss the sound of a rumbling V8? A UK exhaust manufacturer may have the answer: fake external noise.
The Milltek exhaust company has invented a muffler that has a built-in speaker to emit a fake but realistic V8 noise – or one of a number of high performance sounds that can be selected via a smartphone app.
The noise gets louder as the otherwise silent electric car in driven faster or accelerates harder.
The hi-tech fake exhaust – which costs the equivalent of about $2400 – was shown at last year’s SEMA auto show in Las Vegas, but now the first examples have begun to hit the street.
Below is a short video of a demonstration unit connected to an iPad and an accelerator pedal at the 2019 SEMA auto show.
Now one UK owner has fitted a pair of fake exhausts to his Tesla Model 3 electric car. It’s in this video review here, although the presenter and the car owner take a while to get to the point.
If you start watching the video from about the five-minute mark you’ll be able to cut to the chase and see it in action on a real car.
The silence of electric cars – and their increasing presence on our roads – has become a serious issue for pedestrians and visually impaired persons.
Authorities in Europe, the US and Japan are drafting policies to compel electric cars to emit a warning sound – similar to a hum – at low speeds so they can be detected in parking lots and in other pedestrian precincts.
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