Lotus Evija’s ‘engine note’ to be created by music producer

One thing that I will miss in this future EV is the sound of a combustion engine. There’s nothing quite like the roar of a V8 or the woosh of a turbo or the scream of a V10.

Unfortunately, electric vehicles don’t really make a lot of noise when driving. The Ministry of Transport outlined the rules in 2018 forcing electric (and hybrid) cars to emit low-speed sounds to alert pedestrians of their approach. It happened as traffic incident reports occurring due to pedestrians not hear approaching vehicles. Car manufacturers have therefore developed sounds for them. Lotus hopes that its to work with music producer Patrick Patrikios will produce a whole range of sounds for his next electric hypercar, the Evija.

The artificial sound of the engine is nothing new. It has been a thing for years in vehicles such as the Lexus LFA, VW GTI, Ford Focus ST and various BMWs. (BMW calls it Active Sound.) Engine sound is routed through the vehicle’s speakers to “improve” the hearing environment. Sometimes it works. With EVs, however, this artificial sound can be taken to a whole new level as there is no motor to back up the artificial sound. All the sound is artificial.

The starting point for Patrikios’ work was the legendary Lotus 49. If you’re not familiar with the 49, it was a Cosworth-powered F1 car designed by Lotus founder Colin Chapman. He raced in the 1967 F1 season, while producing that glorious sound:

The 49 was chosen because of its importance to the Lotus brand. As Patrikios explained:

We wanted to create a soundscape for the Evija that was recognizable and distinctive Lotus. I sat down with the development team at Hethel and discussed what it should be like. We wanted something intrinsically connected to Lotus, so that we could define an audio plan for its future electric cars.

While working to perfect the sound of the Evija’s “engine”, Patrikios and Lotus noticed that the engine sound of the 49 slowed down was similar to the electrical sound of the Evija’s engine. So when accelerating the Evija will use the sound of a 49 going from zero to 186 mph. Patrikios didn’t just make the noise of the Evija engine. He also created every tone of the car, from seat belt indicators to door chimes. With Lotus’ future being electric and with its impressive history of racing and road cars, maybe the man-made sounds won’t be so bad after all.