Inside the effort to make EVs roar like real sports cars

Sports car makers are rolling out EVs that are designed to be just as noisy as the big engines their customers know and love

- Stephen Wilmot

When Mercedes-Benz Chief Executive Ola Kallenius took a prototype sports car for a spin in February, he was delighted with the roar.

"This might be the best V8 we've ever made," he exclaimed.

It was an electric vehicle. The sound came not from one of Mercedes's famed AMG eight-cylinder internal combustion engines, but from speakers built into the headlights.

EVs once promised to turn down the volume on traffic. Now they are introducing a new cacophony to the urban streetscape. Sports car makers are rolling out EVs that are designed to be just as noisy as the big engines their customers know and love. Makers of these cars say the roar and rumble are central to their identities and appeal.

Others have enlisted Hollywood composers and musicians to enliven their EVs and hybrids with futuristic hums.

The debate about what an electric performance car should sound like is about to get noisier: In October, Ferrari will give fans and investors their first glimpses of its first electric model.

The Italian company has become Europe's most valuable carmaker by selling loud sports cars for hundreds of thousands of dollars. So far, it has said only that the EV won't be silent.