Why Do So Many Modern Cars Have Fake Engine Sounds?

Not all cars produce fake engine sounds, but the ones that do are mostly electric cars that hum like spaceships. Many even try to replicate what they'd sound like had they packed an actual gas engine under the hood, and blast that sound both inside and outside the cabin. The Porsche Taycan was one of the first high-profile EVs to give itself a souped-up soundtrack, treating cabin sound as a performance feature.

The thing is that EVs are too quiet at lower speeds, so much so that their silence poses a threat to unsuspecting pedestrians, particularly those who are blind or have low vision. Many listen to an idling engine to tell whether a stopped car might move, which is something a silent EV wouldn't offer.

It's why, in 2016, NHTSA's regulators actually decided to require that hum by law. Below a speed of 19 mph, EVs must make noise both driving forward and in reverse. Hybrids, when running on electric power, count as well. That speed was strategically picked — go any faster, and the rumble of tires and rushing air makes enough noise on its own for pedestrians to hear the car coming.

Otherwise, the threat is pretty real. NHTSA's crash data puts hybrids' odds of hitting a pedestrian about 18% higher than gas cars'. However, with the alerts in place, the agency expected about 2,400 fewer pedestrian injuries a year.

Weirdly, the alert isn't required to sound like an actual engine, which explains why so many EVs sound like spaceships. It's all good as long as people recognize it as a vehicle. Beyond safety, these sounds also help provide a more engaging driving experience.

In gas cars, engine noise provides strong auditory cues to help drivers judge how much power they're using, and in manuals, help them find the right time to shift. Electric motors, being too quiet for their own good, don't offer that. It's something performance fans have been pretty vocal about, according to Hyundai. BMW, for one, worked with film composer Hans Zimmer on driving sounds for its i4 and iX. The harder the driver presses the accelerator, the richer that sound gets.

However, it's not just hybrids and EVs that do this — some gas cars need that help too, especially with mufflers and sound deadening making engines quieter than ever. On Toyota's new GR Corolla, models equipped with the JBL audio upgrade pipe in synthetic sounds that track the throttle, complementing the real engine note. Toyota says this provides extra feedback about what the car is doing, which can be helpful on the track. Honda's Civic Type R does something similar.

Some EVs, like Hyundai's Ioniq 5 N, even fake their gearshifts, enabled by real paddles behind the wheel. Pull those and the motors pause for a split second, twitching the car as if it actually changed gears. To complete the act, drivers can also pick varying engine and exhaust sounds that play along.

Research has shown that engine noise also keeps drivers' speed in check. A 2024 review in Frontiers in Psychology pulled together studies around how drivers judge how fast they're going. It found that with little or no engine noise to go by, drivers usually felt they were going slower than they really were, so they sped up. Now, the research barely covered EVs, but the same principles could apply.

For Dodge, the fake sound is also about swagger. In 2024, the company launched its electric Charger Daytona in an attempt to woo muscle-car fans. At the rear of the car is a special unit called the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, which isn't actually a real exhaust. Inside it lies a set of speakers that respond to your throttle. The notes change to match, and at full blast, the speakers hit 126 decibels, which is as loud as a Charger Hellcat with its Supercharged V8. Plenty of effort went into designing that sound, too. Dodge's product chief told Hagerty that the team blended samples of Hemi V8s and even Chrysler's old turbine car from the early '60s into the new sound for the electric Charger. They still stopped short of adding fake shifts, though, deciding those would feel a little too dishonest.