What Does a Chevy Volt Sound Like?
 

About 3 months ago I read an online newspaper article that was critical of EV's regarding them making no noise and being a danger to other motorists, pedestrians, etc. Today, I received an article from my Chevy Volt newsletter addressing the "noise" a Volt will make while operating. If Chevy is at the point in production that they can tinker with the "sound" the car makes I hope this is good news that the bulk of pre-production is near-completion and they are still on track for release in 2010.

Interesting further down in the article that Frank Weber (a GM rep) even addresses the sound a Volt will make in relation to alerting "blind" people that may walk near its path. He calls it a "pedestrian friendly alert." On a side note, for a company that just asked the government today to kick in 10 billion to help with the Chrysler merger I hope they aren't wasting any of it into the "sound" a Volt makes!

One of the highlights of reading these articles in scrolling down to read the user comments after the article. Some of them make great points...others are just plain funny!

Here's the link...

GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site » Blog Archive » The Sound of the Chevy Volt

Hey, just drag a baseball card across the spokes (rim) to make it loud...just like when we was young.

As for the "pedestrian-freindly alert," how about having the car do a Curly Stooge "WHOOP-whoopwhoopwhoop!"

Maybe they could put some sort of a metal block into the car, with reciprocating pistons that are plumbed through a series of valves to pull in oxygen rich air and a combustible fluid of some sort (like gasoline or something) and detonate it under pressure with some type of sparking apparatus, and then use the same piston's reciprocating motion to push the spent gases out of a tube of some sort to make noise. Maybe if they did it right they could use some of the detonation's energy to turn a crank connected to the piston, and the crank could help push the car along through a gear reduction box.

So where is the link to the sound clip at ?
( I'm probably looking right at it. )

I can hear the high pitch noise of a Prius coming at me in eletric mode from several feet away.
Maybe they should just amplify that.

Or replace it with the sound of a supercharged 426 hemi. ;)

Just maybe...

Odd this thread had no posts for almost a year and now it's hot when the Volt might never be produced!

...at the current rate of events, I believe it's making a g-r-e-a-t BIG SUCKING sound!

So we're all aware that most of the sound you hear from cars has little to do with the car itself, more a function of wind and friction noises... right?

Glad GM can "tune" those sounds.

Incredible how much money is poured into R&D...I can see it now...

GM has a hot new car on the horizon...so hot they think they can waste money on what the car sounds like when in motion. Insert lightning bolt sound....

Surprise...just get the car on the road already and at a price I can afford!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was a Chevy guy for years and years...purchased my first non-Chevy in 2008 and now I'm a Toyota guy for my last two vehicles...go figure. I'll take one for the team and buy US...and I did it for 12 years...but I won't dump my wallet forever.

Meh, I'll buy a used Volt. If they don't all get crushed. ;)

I don't think I'll ever buy a new car.

At this point...pretty sure you'll get a great deal on a used Volt soon!

If I ever do buy a used Volt, I bet I can do to the external sound maker just what I do to all the door & seatbelt buzzers. Disconnect them.

...at this point I believe there are people who would just like to be able to use one!

I'll bet on that too, Matt.

If GM actually does release them, and they come to market, the first time something breaks just outside of warranty, or after GM finally gives in (thus destroying the warranty and any chance of an OEM fix) I'll go buy one for scrap value, just to fix it my way. :)

Yah.
My first thoughts were " What does a Chevy Volt sound like ? ...Well it's the sound that our tax dollars make when they are bailing out G.M. so it can get back to making a profit from cars like its' 19 MPG Camaro. "

Let's all hope that G.M. actually makes the Volt a reality instead of a P.R. tool.

Gm must be ate up, they haven't made the car and they're dumping money on some noise maker for the car that doesn't exist.

and they wonder why theyre going bankrupt ? :rolleyes:

...how about the 'sound' of toilet-paper spooling off the roll at VERY high speed where the 'tissues' are really '$100-bills' attached at the perforation lines!

...and, the sudden, swirling, watery, swooshing sound is everything going "down the drain."

...in nautical terms, you throw water OUT of a ship to "bail" it in order to keep it from sinking...here, I think we're just throw water (money) INTO the sinking ship.

Seek peek at the Volt control cluster with special "sound generator" for pedestrian safety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OppkKjhbTzE

I couldn't resist....

...I thought "squeeling" brake sounds followed by horrendous "crashing" sounds would be appropriate too.